LeSean McCoy Says Caitlin Clark Is the Most Influential Female Athlete Ever

Fair warning up front: This is a slow news cycle conversation and I am fully aware of it but LeSean McCoy said something worth unpacking so here we are.

Shady appeared on the Speakeasy podcast this week alongside Emmanuel Acho and the group got into a discussion about the most influential white athletes of all time.

Tony Hawk, Conor McGregor, Larry Bird, David Beckham, the usual names. Then Caitlin Clark came up and McCoy took it somewhere nobody expected.

“She is one. She’s the most influential women’s athlete of all time.”

Over Serena Williams. Over 23 Grand Slam singles titles. Over 300-plus weeks ranked number one in the world. Over two decades of absolute dominance that elevated women’s tennis globally. LeSean McCoy put Caitlin Clark ahead of all of it and the other hosts immediately pushed back.

His counterargument was actually pretty interesting though.

“I think Serena Williams was great. But who was watching women’s basketball? You weren’t. I wasn’t. Then we get this girl like Steph Curry and everybody watches it.”

LeSean McCoy on Caitlin Clark:

"CAITLIN CLARK IS THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WHITE ATHLETE OF ALL-TIME" @CutonDime25 says what CC has done for women's basketball is unmatched by any other accomplishment in women's sports! Agree or disagree?

Check us out live ➡️ https://t.co/f4H3dQB55c pic.twitter.com/2y5pzrSomN

— Speakeasy (@speakeasytlkshw) March 4, 2026

The point he is making is not that Clark is a better athlete or has a more decorated resume. It is that Clark moved a needle that nobody else could move.

Women’s basketball went from a sport that existed in the background to something people actually argue about on television, buy tickets to see, and debate in podcasts like this one. She did it in less than a year as a professional.

She did it coming out of Iowa, not UConn, not South Carolina, not a program with built-in national recognition. That part is genuinely remarkable.

The counterargument is that Serena Williams did the same thing for a sport that was already globally established, which is arguably harder.

Dominating women’s tennis for twenty years on the biggest stages in the world and inspiring an entirely new generation of players across the globe is a different kind of influence than what Clark has produced so far.

Clark has one WNBA season under her belt. Serena’s resume spans decades.

So where do I land? LeSean McCoy is not wrong that Clark transformed women’s basketball in a way that nobody else ever has. He is probably getting ahead of himself putting her above Serena right now with one professional season on the books.

Check back in ten years and the conversation might look completely different.

What LeSean McCoy’s take actually tells you is how massive Caitlin Clark has already become that this is even a sentence anyone feels comfortable saying out loud. A year ago it would have been laughable. Now it is a legitimate debate. That alone says everything.

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