Basketball fanatics should know that the next big thing in United States basketball is named Caitlin Clark. Yes, she is a woman. And yes, she shoots like Stephen Curry. Or should I say Stephen Curry shoots like her?
Clark was a star in US college basketball. And she seems destined to be a star, too, in the WNBA where she plays for the lowly ranked Indiana Fever as the number one in the recent draft.
Clark has invited controversy because she is white, she is pretty and she is straight. Many players in the WNBA are black and are members of the LGBTQ+ community. Some observers simply could not accept the fact that she is good because she is a “hooper.” Some commenters say she is popular because she is white, she is pretty and, yes, she is straight.
In the last edition of the NBA All-Star Games, Stephen Curry, the consensus greatest shooter of all time, was pitted against WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu in a three-point shootout. Expect Curry to be pitted against Clark in the next edition of the three-point shootout. Clark, after all, now holds many records in US college basketball, men or women, even if she is still a WNBA rookie.
The WNBA has been a poor version of the NBA mainly because it lacks the pull of stars that were churned since the NBA’s existence. Before Michael Jordan, for example, there were Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and their storied rivalry. Then came Lebron James, Curry and many others.
Because of the lack of marketability, the NBA was forced to subsidize the WNBA. And the WNBA stars are underpaid compared to their NBA counterparts.
The entry of the current batch of rookies led by Clark and another star of US college basketball, Angel Reese, has raised the marketability of the WNBA. Now, people are talking about the women hoopers and the number of the live audience and TV viewers has skyrocketed.
The Indiana Fever are not the best team in the WNBA, the reason why they were given Clark, the best pick in this year’s draft. The Fever are struggling so far and Clark is adjusting her game like rookies should. She may be a phenom but she is not exempt from the rookie woes players go through.
I have become a Clark fan. She is, after all, a generational player like Curry, Jordan, James and the many other superstars that the NBA churned. The WNBA has long needed these generational stars to raise its marketability and profitability. Now that a star has come, I too should accept that.
What piqued my interest is the debate on whether or not the emergence of Clark would be bad for the players that persevered since the inception of the WNBA. Are these players jealous of the money that will go Clark’s way because of her popularity?
I am with those who say that Clark is the best thing to happen to women’s sports. And I will be one of those who will monitor her growth in the league that she is now in. Which reminds me of the movie titled A League of their Own. Watch it and enjoy.