The Indiana Fever have won perhaps the biggest prize in modern sports history: The transcendent college basketball star Caitlin Clark. Clark’s arrival marks a new era for the WNBA, and promises to inject a dose of life into both the Fever, and the league in general.
Clark’s collegiate journey was nothing short of extraordinary. Name an accolade, and she likely has it, whether it be all-time leader in collegiate basketball points, all-time leader in points and 3s in a season, 2x AP player of the year, 2x Nesmith player of the year, or even all-time leader in NCAA tournament points, assists, and 3s. Averaging 28 points and 7 assists across her career, Clark brought Iowa, a historically mediocre women’s basketball program, into the spotlight, carrying them on deep tournament runs two years in a row.
But while her on-court achievements are unrivaled, Clark’s impact off the court has been perhaps even more admirable. Simply put, Clark has helped give women’s college basketball a lift to heights that it has never been seen before in the sports world. In the last four years, major game viewership has increased by more than 4x. As a result of superstars like Clark, a national spotlight has been deservedly placed on NCAA basketball. It even unpredictably surpassed men’s basketball in viewership and interactions at major points throughout the season, most of which Clark played in.
This media stardom has led to hopes that Clark will do the same for the WNBA. Already, 36 of 40 Fever games are slated to be nationally televised, up over 50% from the 22 last year. The WNBA draft also had more focus on it than ever before, becoming a truly nationally important event. Once Clark was finally selected first overall by the Fever, her jersey immediately sold out, breaking yet another record in the amount of jerseys sold at one time by Fanatics, the official supplier of NBA and WNBA jerseys.
On the Fever, Clark will join a roster highlighted by 2023 rookie of the year Aliyah Boston and veteran guard Erica Wheeler. Clark is expected to take the starting point guard role, and light the WNBA on fire in doing so. She brings a combination of shooting and playmaking that has never been seen before, in the NBA or the WNBA.
Some WNBA greats like Diana Taurasi have doubts on whether her prowess will fully translate to the professional level, but the general consensus is that Clark will pick up right where she left off, becoming a star for the Fever.
No matter how Clark’s rookie season turns out, it will be closely watched by millions of basketball fans. It remains to be seen whether her superstardom will carry on as it did in college, but her career up until now will be remembered forever as one of the best in college history.
