Sports Illustrated Lists Elle Duncan As More 'Influential Sports Figure' Than Pat McAfee, Charles Barkley

Sports Illustrated named the "50 most influential figures in sports" this week. A few media pundits made the list, including Stephen A. Smith, Kirk and (his dog Ben) Herbstreit, and the On3 college football insiders Joe Tipton and Hayes Fawcett.

No arguments so far.

Then came a more puzzling entry. SI listed ESPN's WNBA studio team of Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, and Andraya Carter. Here's the problem: those three women are not among the 50 most influential figures in sports media; let alone all of sports.

Consider the media figures SI omitted in favor of them. They made the list over the likes of Pat McAfee, Charles Barkley, Dave Portnoy, Michael Strahan, Colin Cowherd, Adam Schefter, and Bill Simmons.

That alone torpedoes whatever credibility the SI list still had.

McAfee and Barkley are undoubtedly two of the 50 most influential figures in sports. There's a reasonable argument they are more influential than even Stephen A.

McAfee changed the industry by going independent. ESPN came to him to license his program (along with appearances on GameDay) for around $30 million a year. McAfee's weekly interviews with Aaron Rodgers, Bill Belichick, and Nick Saban create fodder for the rest of the industry en masse. 

Barkley, likewise, often sets the conversation with his unpredictable commentary on sports, politics, and culture. Last week, Barkley almost single-handedly drove the Tyreek Hill detainment story away from the race card by calling out the fools trying to gaslight viewers.

"I hate that we’re gonna throw it in the media because you know the guys are gonna quickly go to race and it bothers me," Barkley said during an appearance on Fox Sports 910 radio in Phoenix. "We got so many fools in the media who love to play the race card. I said, ‘Wait a minute, they just did the same thing to Scottie Scheffler.’"

Meanwhile, Duncan, Ogwumike, and Carter only made waves this year because social media praised the three black women for leading the racially charged crusade against Caitlin Clark. Duncan, Ogwumike, and Carter defended the black women in the WNBA's targeting of Clark as if it were their moral duty. More on that here.

However, they were not the only women who made the top 50 list simply for downplaying Caitlin Clark's greatness. 

"Here are 9 women listed as one of the 50 most influential people in sports. Not one of them would be on this list without Caitlin Clark: Candace Parker, Angel Reese, Aja Wilson, JuJu Watkins, Flau'jae Johnson, Cathy Englebert, Elle Duncan, Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike," Jason Whitlock correctly observed on X Wednesday.
 

Hating on Caitlin Clark is good business. But it's neither unique nor "influential." The market for doing such is already oversaturated. 

Now, Duncan is the most talented of the three. She is a good SportsCenter host. But her attempts to break through socially are often senseless, desperate, and ill-informed.

Last week, she interrupted a conversation about Tua Tagovailoa's health to talk about how – wait for it –  black women are victims due to their C-section scars. Huh?

We'll let her explain:

"As someone who is a woman who has two scars that go from hip to hip because I've had two C-sections in an effort to provide for my family and create a family for my family, I understand sacrifice," said Duncan. "A black woman in this country, whose mortality rates are incredibly high, I understand making sacrifices."

Reminder, she made that argument on ESPN, a sports network.

Later in the day, Duncan put her racist cap on by saying she appreciates angering straight white men.

Other Duncan highlights include protesting on-air the Supreme Court giving abortion rights back to the states and Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill. 

Duncan also reportedly pressured ESPN executives to remove Sage Steele from a social justice special in 2020 because Duncan questioned Steele's "blackness."

Are you black enough? You better ask Elle Duncan.

Skin color privilege exists. And at ESPN, it's not white privilege. Case in point: Elle Duncan's career. 

But that does not make her "influential." She's playing the same character as Jemele Hill and Bomani Jones before her.

Ultimately, the list shows how far Sports Illustrated continues to fall. SI used to be the chief authority of mainstream sports coverage. Today, SI is a shell of its former self.

Sports Illustrated did not honestly attempt to list the 50 most influential figures in sports. Money drives professional sports in America. The players and leagues act at the behest of the figures who control the money.

Thereby, the most influential figures in sports are the television executives and the CEOs of Nike, Under Armour, and Adidas. However, SI wanted impress social media with a list through which it could highlight the WNBA and diversity. 

Listing Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, and Andraya Carter over Pat McAfee and Charles Barkley accomplished that, but it also severely compromised the credibility of the exercise.