Zorn: Remorseless, low-class roughing up of Caitlin Clark makes for a cloudy Sky

It's hard to respect an organization that doesn't respect the game

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Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise.

Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. I talk with WGN-AM 720 host John Williams about what’s making news and likely to be grist for the PS mill. The WGN listen-live link is here.

Bye, Sky!

As as fan, I could certainly forgive Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter for her little attack on WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark during Saturday’s nationally televised game between the Sky and Clark’s Indiana Fever. Emotions run high during games, the two had been tangling on the court and chirping at one another.

Clark was waiting for an inbounds pass when Carter came up to Clark from behind shouting “You bitch!,” then drove a shoulder hard into Clark, knocking Clark to the floor (watch the video here).

Carter’s defenders have argued that basketball is a very physical game. Hard fouls and excessive contact have become common (unfortunately, in my view). But Carter’s contact with Clark was “not a basketball play,” as Clark herself an many others have observed. “Outside of a sporting contest, it would have been seen as an assault,” notes a Tribune editorial in Tuesday’s paper. “Even within a sporting context, it was bad.”

The incident demanded a ritual but sincere apology along the lines of, “I lost my cool and I’m sorry,” from Carter. And from Sky leadership it demanded a statement of regret and rebuke along with a one or two-game suspension for Carter to underscore that such gratuitous physical contact when the ball isn’t even in play is grossly unsporting and shames the team.

But what we got from Carter in the post-game news conference was a grumpy “Next question” and, when pressed, “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions.”

Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon then told reporters, “That’s enough. We’re good. She’s good.”

But we’re not good and it wasn’t enough — evidently not for Carter, who later threw crap at Clark on social media, posting, “Beside three point shooting what does she bring to the table man?” and sniping at the “trolls” who criticized her behavior.

What Clark brings to the table is an uncanny and compelling ability to shoot from well beyond the three-point line, a talent that has drawn millions of new eyes to women’s hoops and enhanced the fortunes of every player and every owner in the the league.

Fans like to see athletes do uncanny and compelling things; things they can’t do, like drain shots from the midcourt logo. So they have been buying tickets in record numbers not only to Indiana Fever games but to WNBA games in general — ticket sales are up a reported 93% this season in large part due to the “Caitlin Clark effect.”

That interest and goodwill can only extend so far. Even though the Sky look to be fairly mediocre in this rebuilding year, I want to like them and root for them.

But Carter’s behavior, the failure of Weatherspoon to express anger and dismay in the post-game news conference and, I might add, the gleeful way budding star Angel Reese jumped from her seat on the bench to celebrate Carter’s attack on Clark have soured me on the team. Add to that the failure of team brass to administer sanctions greater than the extremely mild tut-tut handed out by the league — Carter’s bashing of Clark away from the ball was upgraded after the fact from a common foul to a low-level flagrant foul, which, so what? — has left me, well, unenthusiastic is a mild way of putting it.

Weatherspoon undid a bit of the damage in too-little-too-late remarks Monday,:

Physical play, intensity, and a competitive spirit are hallmarks of Chicago Sky basketball. Chennedy got caught up in the heat of the moment in an effort to win the game, She and I have discussed what happened and that it was not appropriate, nor is it what we do or who we are. Chennedy understands that there are better ways to handle situations on the court, and she will learn from this, as we all will.

That took two days? And with a gentle tsk tsk the Sky want us to consider the matter settled?

“This kind of controversy can help fuel the league’s growth, as any publicity is good publicity,” wrote Tribune sports columnist Paul Sullivan.

I don’t share his optimism. I’m more in line with former Tribune sports columnist David Haugh, who said on WSCR-AM 670, “The Sky is, to me, becoming more unlikable by the day because of stuff like this.”

Napping with friends? Someone in Chicago has an answer: Yes!

Two weeks ago I raised an eyebrow at a recent passage in Sun-Times advice columnist Ismael Pérez’s column: “I have a friend who would come over to my apartment and — with my consent — take naps with me during our lunch break.”

I wrote to ask him if "naps" was code for something or if snoozing with pals in the middle of the day is a custom I'm unaware of.

Pérez wrote back last week:

Yes — "nap" as in just sleeping next to each other haha. It was new to me, too, but we were just that comfortable with each other. That's the only friend I've napped with. So, I don't think it's that common. At least for me.

Just thought I’d update you.

Notes and comments from readers — lightly edited — along with my responses

Regarding the off-duty cop who shot a dog

D. Dale Walker — Eric, you came down really hard on the off-duty cop who shot the mixed-breed pit bull that had attacked her corgi. ... but not nearly hard enough. I recommend about twelve more syllables of profanity. Looking at the video is horrific. The owner of the attacking dog has thrown his body on the dog to break up the fight, and she pulls a trigger?! She’s lucky she didn’t shoot the man. The Chicago Police Dept. needs to fire her before she costs the city a million-dollar lawsuit. Meanwhile, my heart breaks for the man whose dog was killed.

Fred — I’m with the shooter. First, what is to say that this pit bull won’t get loose again and attack someone’s pet or even a person? Most dogs would want to play with another dog, not attack it. Can you imagine living next door to someone with an obviously dangerous dog? If this dog owner was my neighbor, I’d be concerned every time I, a family member, or guest came and went from my house, especially after an incident like the one described. If I was the corgi owner, I would countersue. And what if it wasn't her corgi, but a child being attacked?

Bob E. — I've been assaulted a number of time by dogs, bitten once — from behind — by a dog whose owner had her face buried in her phone. While it was cowardly for the shooter to run away, her shooting of the pit bull mix was justified and the owner of the pit bull recklessly put himself in harm's way.

Dan R. — The attack was an assault on her dog that could easily have been deadly. If she’d tried to break up the attack she might have risked her own life.

Garry Spelled Correctly — No one should be allowed have pit bulls or part pit bulls. They are violent dogs who are always attacking other dogs and people. The cop needs to be fired over this! She could've killed that man!

Gary K. —You should meet the several pit bulls I'm familiar with — they might kill you by licking you to death.

Zorn — When not properly trained, yes, pits and pit mixes can be very dangerous. But as Gary K. points our, many are docile and loving. My concern with the story is not that the woman who owned the corgi shot her gun, it’s how quickly she did so with the owner right there trying to pull the dogs apart The shooting happened so quickly that it appeared rash and irresponsible. But I did get a lot of comments on both sides of this dispute.

Store brand vs. name brand products

Last week I wrote in defense of certain store-brand/generic grocery store products that I think are just as good as the name brand and presented a raft of Facebook comments. Here are a few letters from readers:

Skeptic. While in grad school my group of friends did a blind taste test with beer. They were all mass-market pilsner style beers. I can attest that when the taste test is blind, the big differences I perceived when I knew the brand disappeared almost completely. My family did the same thing a few years ago when someone resurrected Hydrox cookies. They are the same as Oreos, but don't say that to fans of Hydrox.

Zorn — The Hydrox of my youth were inferior to Oreos, but perhaps they have improved the recipe.

Rick Weiland — We bought house-brand Ritz Crackers at the Piggly Wiggly in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, and they do not stack up (sorry) to the real thing.

Jim Parks — Here are some Kirkland (Costco’s house brand) products I really like for their quality and lower price:

• Organic Smooth Peanut Butter - only sea salt added - great flavor and once the oil is mixed in, it stays creamy.

• Irish Cream liqueur - as good as Bailey's

• Dry Gin

• Vodka

• Toilet paper - just the right thickness and softness

Tom Krish — Definitely always buy name brand facial tissue! Kleenex 3-ply all day. The store brands are rough.

Beth Bales — I tried Aldi’s Cheerio-equivalent. They're terrible.

Nancy Meyer — Trader Joe's "Joe's O's" are quite good. Actually, I prefer them to real Cheerios.

Zorn — I have retracted as in accurate an earlier statement here saying that Aldi and Trader Joe’s have a common owner, they do not. They are connected, but in a distant way.

On using speed-cameras to ticket cars exceeding 85 mph on the expressway

Michael M. — The idea put forth in a letter from Andreas Danckers to crack down on wild drivers on the interstates isn’t not terrible, but how do we punish the driver when it many not be the registered owner who committed the infraction? Should I really be on the hook if my offspring or in-laws borrow my car?

Zorn — Yes. Like with city-issued speed cameras and red-light cameras and parking tickets. The car gets the citation. When we get red-light or speed tickets, we usually consult the family calendar to try to figure out which one of us — me, my wife or my son (who occasionally borrows a car) — was driving. It's weird that these notifications don't arrive for weeks after the fact. Seems like the ticket could be generated almost immediately and emailed to the violator, then mailed out only after a non-responsive period.

Meanwhile, “A lawsuit filed in federal court in Illinois seeks to end the state’s use of cameras that record license plates, geolocations and photos, saying they violate the Fourth and 14th amendments,” The suit says:

(The state is) tracking anyone who drives to work in Cook County — or to school, or a grocery store, or a doctor’s office, or a pharmacy, or a political rally, or a romantic encounter, or family gathering — every day, without any reason to suspect anyone of anything, and are holding onto those whereabouts just in case they decide in the future that some citizen might be an appropriate target of law enforcement.

I understand the alarm. If the data are stored, retroactive tracking could be used or abused for any number of reasons. So it seems to me a compromise policy would be best, in which all such information is destroyed after, say, two weeks barring any potential ongoing investigatory purpose, and that private parties never be granted standing to access it.

The poll results were overwhelming:

Lock him up?

Jake H. — The Tribune Editorial Board said it was a sad strange day for America when former President Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts. But I think it's a great day for a civics lesson. A local prosecutor could put a former president and current presidential candidate in the dock on a grand jury indictment establishing probable cause, and he had to take it. Twelve citizen jurors could and did decide his guilt upon a rigorously fair presentation of evidence and argument. This is the embodiment of the principle that no one is above the law. Federalism and separation of powers actually work. In that respect, it's a great day for America.

I think he won't get any prison time, and that's probably good. These are low-level offenses. He shouldn't be punished extra for being a general piece of shit. Yay for America there, too.

Joanie Wimmer — Well, if you were a judge, how would you sentence someone convicted of 34 felonies who openly denigrated the judge and the judicial system all through the trial and showed no remorse for his criminal behavior? I know if I had a client like that, I would tell him to bring his toothbrush to the sentencing hearing.

Rick Weiland — How about probation on the convictions (first offender and all), but 30 days for contempt of court for all his post-verdict diatribes?

Zorn — My guess is that if Trump weren’t a former president and current presidential candidate, the judge would treat him the way another judge treated first-time, non-violent white-collar offender Martha Stewart, who served five months in the house of numbers. But this matter is so incendiary that this judge likely go with probation.

Sub-scam: Another report from the front lines of dealing with Tribune subscription pricing

Rick Lietz — The other day I called Tribune customer service 312-546-7900 about my renewal notice. They wanted $20 a month for a digital-only subscription. I said no, how about $10? Again, no. Then they “found” a 6-month plan for $6.50 total. Quite a system they have.

Zorn — Good Lord! From $20 a month to a little less than $1.09 a month in one phone call. As I’ve said before, those absurdly low rates are unsustainable. I don’t know what’s so hard about setting a fair price and sticking with it. Introductory offers, yes, but jacking around and attempting to take advantage of long-time subscribers is infamous.

Some of the better recent anti-Trump images from social media

Ya gotta see these tweets!

Here are some funny, non Trump-related visual images I've come across recently on social media. Enjoy, then evaluate:

Yes the baby teeth image is photoshopped, but obviously so.

Vote for your favorite. I’ll share the winner in Thursday’s main edition where I’ll also include last week’s winner because I forgot to do so in the previous issue.

Usage note: To me, “tweet” has become a generic term for a short post on social media. And I will continue to call the platform Twitter if only to spite Elon Musk:

There’s still time to vote in the conventional Tweet of the Week poll!

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