Little Ideas

Caitlin Clark Has Arrived

A rising tide lifts all boats and Caitlin Clark is the tidal wave that crashed onto the basketball scene. During the month of March, the most popular basketball player was surprisingly, not Lebron James, not Stephen Curry, but Caitlin Clark, the star point guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Clark was a basketball phenom for many years. She was one of the top four players coming out of high school and had a staggering statline of 26.6 points per game, 5.9 rebounds, and 7.1 assists during her freshman year at Iowa.

However, Clark was mostly unknown to America until her junior year in college. On March 25, 2023, Clark led the Hawkeyes to beat Louisville and advanced to the Final Four. During that game, Clark hit her 6th three pointer and celebrated by waving her hand in front of her face, a gesture popularized by the pro-wrestler, John Cena, which means “can’t see me.” Highlights of Clark’s shooting prowess and hand waving gesture started going viral on social media, but it wasn’t until a couple days later until Caitlin Clark became a household name.

All the stars aligned for women’s basketball on April 2, 2023 when the Hawkeyes played the LSU Tigers for the NCAA Final Four Championship. The Hawkeyes suffered a crushing defeat to LSU and LSU forward, Angel Reese, the Bayou Barbie (a star in her own right averaging 23 ppg, 15.4 rebs, 1.6 blks), followed Clark around the court at the end of the game and waved the “can’t see me” gesture at Clark and pointed at her ring finger, signaling she is about to receive a championship ring. The internet exploded.

Sports commentators, content creators, and bar patrons all debated if Reese’s actions were trash talking from being competitive or bad sportsmanship. Most notably, Barstool Sports founder and president, Dave Portnoy, went on Twitter and called Reese a “classless piece of shit”, which added fuel to the fire. What no one knew at the time was that Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and women’s college basketball were about to become the biggest thing in sports. It had all the ingredients of an exciting game: conflict, drama, and dominating players.

Fast forward to 2024, and Caitlin Clark is beginning to get comparisons to NBA superstar Stephen Curry, as both players rack up highlights after highlights of making threes far beyond the 3pt line. Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes once again faced Angel Reese and the LSU Tigers in the Final Four Semi-Finals which drew, according to ESPN, a whopping 16.1 Million Viewers, which was the most watched college basketball game on ESPN and second highest audience for any basketball game on ESPN since 2012. The numbers continued to grow as the championship game between Iowa and Uconn garnered almost 19 million viewers, 4 million more than the men’s championship game.

With Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese both declaring for the WNBA draft, the excitement of their rivalry will continue onto the next level of competition. Caitlin Clark is expected to be drafted by the Indiana Fever, and WNBA tickets to see Clark have already spiked higher. Tickets for the LA Sparks v Indiana Fever have reached above $200 per ticket.

As more people tune in to see Clark, fandom will inevitably grow around the hometown players as well. With more fans comes more money. Local communities where these teams play will have a boost in their economy. WNBA players will get paid more. Shareholders of media companies and sports holdings will profit. A rising Caitlin Clark lifts all women’s basketball.

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