Book Review: Christine Brennan's 'On Her Game'

"On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports," the title of USA Today columnist Christine Brennan's new book about the WNBA star, is doing a lot of work. On one hand, it's about the game, right? Nobody can deny Caitlin Clark's talent on a basketball court, where her rookie season stats with the Indiana Fever were eye-popping: 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game while leading the WNBA in assists and 3-pointers made. On the other hand, why is Caitlin Clark the poster child for a "Revolution in Women's Sports?" The WNBA's been around since 1997 and plenty of female athletes are or were the very best at what they do, inspiring millions of young women to play all sorts of sports — from Serena Williams to Simone Biles to Lindsey Vonn. But there's something more to the Caitlin Clark phenomenon, and it's that something that Brennan's reporter instincts sensed early, when Clark was filling the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City for every home game, well before her remarkable first year in the WNBA. "What was going on?" writes Brennan in her introduction. "Was this because Clark is white and straight in a league that is 74% Black or mixed-race, with a sizable gay population?… Was it because of her eight-year $28 million Nike shoe deal?… Was it jealousy? Was it all of the above?" Hoping to find answers or at least insights into those questions, Brennan convinced her editor to let her cover six straight weeks of Clark's first WNBA season, giving "On Her Game" a comprehensive feel, except for one thing: Clark never sat down for a one-on-one interview with Brennan. She did, however, answer every question Brennan posed at press conferences, and they are widely quoted throughout the book, along with all sorts of other Clark content like TV appearances and social media posts as well as interviews Brennan conducted with other WNBA players, coaches and various experts. Brennan's presence at Fever games, home and away, and her intense focus on Clark as a singular story became a story of its own in September 2024, when Brennan asked follow-up questions of DiJonai Carrington, a Phoenix Sun player whose fingers made contact with Clark's eye during a playoff game. Brennan asked Carrington if there was anything intentional about it, she said no, and days later the WNBA Players Association called for Brennan's media credential to be revoked for "unprofessionalism." Ten months later, it's a good bet only the most diehard sports journalism fans will care about that controversy. Brennan makes it very clear how she feels about it. "I was doing my job," she writes. Clark's race and the frosty reception she got from some in the league is returned to again and again, with Brennan and the people she talked to asserting with incredulity that the WNBA wasn't ready for all the attention. "The league needed to do a better job in preparing… to take advantage of the tsunami of popularity that is raising all of the boats," legendary civil rights activist Dr. Harry Edwards told Brennan. Instead, Brennan cites example after example — from WNBA legends like Diana Taurasi and Sheryl Swoopes, to fellow female athletes like the WNBA's Breanna Stewart — who made statements minimizing Clark's impact. It all makes for an interesting read and speaks to the divisive "us vs. them" moment the world finds itself in, but fans looking for tidbits about Clark that are not already part of the public record — how she learned to shoot like that, her on- and off-court life — will have to stay tuned to the current WNBA season. Clark's Fever team is in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference, with their superstar having missed several games with a quadriceps injury. The playoffs begin Sept. 14.