After Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers doubles down on controversial 'white privilege' stance: "Should be equal opportunity"

Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark are two of the rising stars in the WNBA and two players who have brought a significant amount of attention to women's basketball over the last few years.

Despite their popularity, both players have continued to talk about the inequality in media coverage and marketing between white and black players. Bueckers spoke to Time Magazine on Monday and detailed how she feels about it.

"There’s White privilege every single day that I see," she said in terms of marketing opportunities. "I feel like I’ve worked extremely hard, blessed by God. But I do think there’s more opportunities for me. I feel like even just marketability, people tend to favor White people, White males, White women. I think it should be equal opportunity. I feel like there is privilege to what I have, and to what all White people have. I recognize that. I want to counteract that with the way I go about my business," Bueckers said.

Bueckers has been outspoken on the topic since she discussed the lack of coverage black women receive in sports at the 2021 ESPY Awards when she was just a freshman at UConn.

The topic is also one that Clark spoke to Times Magazine about during her rookie season last year.

"I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a White person, there is privilege," Clark told Time. "A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them."

"The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing," Clark added.

Bueckers and Clark are two important figures and two important voices in the growth of women's basketball despite just entering the WNBA.

Paige Bueckers is named the Honda Sports Award winner for basketball

Paige Bueckers has earned virtually every collegiate award there is to win while she attended UConn. However, despite seeing her first action as a professional in the WNBA, Bueckers is still racking up collegiate awards.

UConn announced on Monday that Bueckers is the recipient of the Honda Sports Award.

The honor is given by the Collegiate Women's Sports Awards and is presented to the top women's athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports.

The last UConn Husky to win the award was New York Liberty champion Breanna Stewart in 2016 after leading UConn to four consecutive national championships.