Jay Williams Now Claiming Caitlin Clark Cannot Be the GOAT Without a Championship

ESPN's Jay Williams caught some serious heat over the weekend when he declared that Caitlin Clark cannot be considered a "great" player without winning a championship. It appeared to be the final evolution of the rings argument-- Clark, a player so obviously great and having literally set an all-time scoring record days prior, could not gain entry to the echelon of great players without winning the Big One. There was immediate and intense pushback against that idea because, well, it's ridiculous! Championships are always part of the equation of how great a player might be but the absence of one does not exclude a player from greatness and there are many, many concrete examples of that exact idea across the sporting spectrum.

Williams clearly heard all the noise and decided to go back to the well on Wednesday night. He was tasked with broadcasting the LSU men's team's upset over No. 17 Kentucky and ended up on the Clark topic early in the second half. However, Williams changed his tune. On the ESPN broadcast last night he said Clark couldn't be the greatest of all time without winning a title. Which is very different!

If Williams had said that on Saturday it probably would've passed without notice because that is not a hot take at all. It's a somewhat ridiculous thing to say 48 hours after she became the all-time scoring leader in women's college basketball history with the knowledge that she has a legit shot to pass Pistol Pete Maravich for the all-time leading scorer in D1 basketball history, hard stop. But it's not like it's something we haven't heard before. Pushing back against the idea that a player can be considered the GOAT without championships is a tale as old as the GOAT debate.

But that's not what he said. He said she couldn't be considered great and caught the appropriate amount of heat for it. Heat that stemmed from frustration that a lack of a championship diminishes other accomplishments of an undeniably great basketball player.

Clark is really in it now, though. When analysts dedicate multiple segments to splitting hairs on GOAT debates that means she's in the spotlight. Excited to circle back on this when Clark wins (or does not win) this year's national title and heads off to the WNBA with her college resume complete.