Caitlin Clark is already the face of the WNBA. But she’s not the savior

It’s about 10:00 p.m. at Brooklyn Academy of Music on Monday night, and the WNBA-est part of the WNBA Draft is unfolding. Well, perhaps third. It was tough to compete with Kate Martin — who merely showed up to support her Iowa teammate Caitlin Clark — getting drafted at No. 18 overall and rising from her seat in the audience to walk across the stage, and the usual, underlying dread that this would be the high-point in many of the draftees’ WNBA careers, a class of 36 trying to infiltrate a league of just 144.

With the event coming to a close, a mix of fans and media are swarming an exit the players will be using. We know this because it is the only exit at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a cozy (sweaty) venue for the jam-packed event.

Some are primed to take photos, some to ask for autographs, everyone blocking the path to a charter bus ready to whisk the players away.

A security guard takes center-stage to announce, “Everybody, in case you missed it, Caitlin has left the building. I repeat: Caitlin has already left the building.”

“We don’t care! Where’s Angel?!” a fan snaps back from the crowd. The security guard sheepishly sulks pack to his post.

The fan, a 31-year-old woman named Nyla, isn’t just ribbing the security guard, but venting.

“I’m tired of people — and honestly the media — thinking we’re only here for Caitlin,” she tells me. “Where was this energy when A’ja [Wilson] was coming into the league, or even Candace [Parker]?”

Nyla poses a valid question. Caitlin Clark is a special prospect; perhaps her long-range shooting ability, or her passing talent, or her ball-handling skills in a lanky 6’0 frame isn’t unprecedented, but the whole combination may be. But being an unprecedented talent...isn’t unprecedented.

We were due for Clark. Eight years ago, Breanna Stewart went No. 1 overall. Eight years before that, it was Candace Parker. Seven years before that, Lauren Jackson. But it is Clark whose Iowa Hawkeyes broke the record for the most-watched women’s college basketball game three times in six days during their most recent NCAA tournament run.

And it is Clark who brought the same effect to the WNBA in her first day on the job, as Monday night’s draft shattered every viewership and social media engagement record imaginable:

Credit: ESPN PR

Still, a rising tide lifts all boats. While her Hawkeyes were the team of March Madness, “non-Iowa games saw a 76% growth year-over-year,” according to an ESPN press release. Frustration for long-time women’s basketball fans like Nyla is understandable, but dissipates quickly.

“Of course I’m happy more attention is coming to the sport, and hopefully money,” she admits. “And yeah, it’s not like the media stuff is Caitlin’s fault.”

This is also true; Clark has earnestly given props to the hoopers of the past while acknowledging her status as an ambassador. But mass intrigue starts and ends with her electrifying game, she’s no stick in the mud, but she’s not a WWE heel either.

Without a hint of doubt that she’d go No. 1 overall to the Indiana Fever on Monday night, I was most intrigued to see if she’d crack at all. Clark was fresh off a photo-op at the top of the Empire State Building that morning, which followed TV appearances for ESPN and the Today Show the day before, which followed an appearance on Saturday Night Live the prior evening.

Would Clark finally roll her eyes at a cringe-worthy question? Would the cameras catch her mouthing a cuss, or nearly falling asleep? I wasn’t rooting for anything that could mess up her money, you know, but hoping that she’d, I don’t know, arrive to her post-draft presser with a cold one in hand.

Nope. Clark arrived at the draft and immediately walked the orange carpet to the WNBA Countdown desk, where Chiney Ogwumike asked her what part of her game would translate best to the pros.

“I think the biggest thing is my passing. I think that’s kind of what people overlooked at times in college. People just love the scoring so much, and don’t get me wrong, I love shooting the ball. But I think that’s just the biggest thing,” responded Clark.

Then, she found her seat at the main event, listened to ESPN’s broadcast crew discuss her game over the loudspeaker...

...got drafted, celebrated the moment with actor Kevin Mi— I MEAN JAKE FROM STATE FARM — got interviewed by Holly Rowe, posed for some photos, then headed upstairs for her presser. The first question: What part of her game would translate best to the pros.

“I think the biggest thing is definitely my passing. I think that’s, at times, what gets overlooked in my game. I think the scoring and the long shots is what everybody falls in love with.”

Clark sat for another ten minutes and answered bland questions with all the professionalism you could ask of a 22-year-old superstar, mixing in just enough playful banter to prove she was indeed human. She then thanked the media before heading into the night without a crack in her armor. Clark’s game makes viewers feel like they struck gold; her performance on Monday night was proof that the WNBA did as well.

The same would have been said for Magic Johnson and Larry Bird 45 years ago, two generational talents that faced off in what long stood as the highest-rated college basketball contest ever in the 1979 NCAA Men’s Championship Game. The two then infiltrated the NBA that fall, and would soon come to dominate it. However, they appeared commercials and promotional campaigns with the same ease that they threw full-court dimes, and became two of America’s most popular athletes.

They became known as the saviors of the NBA, and while some have since debated just how much the league needed resuscitation vs. a mere shot in the arm, it’s tough to argue with the facts: The Finals were on tape-delay.

This is decidedly not the state of the WNBA in 2024. Just last season, the Clark-less W posted its most-watched regular- and post-season in over two decades, and their highest attendance total since 2010.

Nor is this the state of women’s basketball as a whole in 2024. Paige Bueckers is a star in her own right at UCONN, and behind her, there were multiple freshman sensations this season. You may have heard of JuJu Watkins of USC, currently staring in an AT&T commercial with Joel Embiid.

Any way you slice it, women’s hoops is hot. Fans know it too.

At around 10:15 on Monday night, I watched No. 2 overall pick Cameron Brink and her family exit the Brooklyn Academy of Music and march toward a black Escalade across the street. (She deserves the extra leg-room, even without heels.)

On their way there, Brink stops to sign a basketball for the fan happened to yell “CAM!” with the greatest enthusiasm. I walk over to the lucky lady, who identifies herself as a 24-year-old NYC transplant named Janey.

She happily admits she started watching women’s basketball within the year, largely because of Caitlin Clark. And yet, Janey wishes the league and its media would focus on other players too: “Caitlin may have helped get me into women’s basketball, but now that I’m here, I’m open to all of it, you know? I want to learn and follow the other players and their careers.”

Janey and Nyla may not share common backgrounds as basketball fans, but didn’t need it to express the same idea: When you see a woman doing something incredible for the first time, it’s probably just the first time you’re seeing it. Regarding Clark, Nyla may have been speaking from experience, but Janey’s intuition led her to the right conclusion:

“I figured the Caitlin stuff was probably overblown,” says Janey. “Like, she’s great, but I knew she can’t be the first great player. I sat down and watched Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird highlights pretty early on and was like, ‘yeah, this is clearly such a high-level of basketball,’ but I wasn’t surprised. And that was like 2003.”

The WNBA has a star, maybe the star, perhaps the most important star in league history, one whose game and demeanor is built for it. Caitlin Clark will not only move crowds, but she will also encourage them to spread their wings and discover all the league has to offer.

But when Clark praises the legends of women’s hoops as well as her contemporaries, it’s not lip-service. Fans will believe her, and even if they don’t the WNBA will prove them wrong. The league does have a lot to offer, including the other draftees from Monday night.

At picks No. 2 and No. 4, Brink and Rickea Jackson now form a rookie duo with a frightening amount of length and skill for the Los Angeles Sparks. Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso have teamed up for the Chicago Sky, and now I’m scared of the painted area at Wintrust Arena.

Last year’s WNBA Finals, some of the most-watched women’s basketball games ever, didn’t just feature household names like Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, and Kelsey Plum. They featured two teams sporting so much length, athleticism, and talent that it was a window into the future.

This movement, this talent explosion in women’s basketball was always coming, there have long been signs. And like any movement, it is led by the genius innovators, the true stars that shine bright thanks to their undeniable talent.

Caitlin Clark is not the movement herself, even if she could be. She’s just the face, and that’s good enough.