HOF coach backpedals on Juju Watkins and Caitlin Clark take: "Just my opinion"

While Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark may have earned TIME's Athlete of the Year honors, Hall of Fame coach George Karl believes Juju Watkins might be the better player. In a post on X on Tuesday, Karl praised Watkins. He said that although Clark is a good player, Watkins might have the size, athleticism, and talent to even compete in the WNBA.

Watkins is in the midst of her sophomore year with USC. She is averaging 24.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game while improving on her efficiency numbers from last season.

In his original post, Karl wrote:

"As good as Caitlin Clark is, I’m thinking Juju Watkins may even be better. She looks to have the size, athleticism and talent to even compete in the NBA at some level!"

However, fans pushed back, arguing that Caitlin Clark has already proven herself as one of the top players in the WNBA and was named to the All-WNBA First-Team. Karl then wound up backtracking on his initial post.

In a follow-up post on Wednesday, he wrote:

"People need to chill about sports!! Caitlin is great, Juju is great and women’s hoops is growing. Juju could play at a highly competitive level - maybe G League and Euro League. Maybe NBA?? I’ve coached 2K NBA games but i could be wrong! It’s just my opinion!"

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Looking back at what George Karl has said about Caitlin Clark in the past

While George Karl is no stranger to firing off controversial takes, he's been complimentary of Caitlin Clark in the past. Much like he wrote in his initial post, he believes that Clark is a good player, and has been complimentary of the WNBA star.

For example, this summer, Clark helped the league set a number of viewership records during her rookie year while leading the Indiana Fever to their first playoff berth since 2016. During this, Clark was compared to Dr. J on social media.

The original post, from a page called Super 70s Sports, compared her to Dr. J, Julius Erving. The post stated that while on the road, Clark will have fans cheering for her louder than the home team.

Fans packed out arenas all over the country for Clark, much like they did for Dr. J in the 70s before the ABA-NBA merger. Karl agreed, seeing the similarities between the two and wrote:

"Caitlin Clark May in fact be the Dr J of the WNBA…50 years later!"

Of course, it will be a while before we see Clark and Watkins compete against one another. The USC star will have to get through two more years of college ball before making the jump to the WNBA level.