2024-04-17 12:44:14
The shooter Caitlin Clark, called to mark a before and after in the history of women’s basketball, was chosen as number one in the WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever and now the 22-year-old prodigy who is compared to Stephen Curry will try to replicate her historic university career in the American professional league, which expects audience records never before recorded with its new superstar.
“I’ve loved playing basketball since I was a little girl and that’s not going to change. The most important thing is to be myself and have a good time. If I do that, the rest will go smoothly,” said a smiling Clark upon hearing her name as number one in the Draft, just as all the forecasts predicted.
Clark, 1.83 meters tall, has just broken it in his fourth season in Yankee university basketball (NCAA), filling all the stadiums in which he went to play and with averages of 31.6 points, 8.9 assists, 7.4 rebounds and, above all, a whopping 5.2 triples made per game (with 37.8 percent effectiveness).
“I’ve dreamed about this since I was in second grade. I’ve always believed in myself. I went to Iowa with the goal of making it to the Final Four and we went to two national championships twice (lost the final both times). “My parents always gave me a lot of confidence since I was a little girl and that’s something girls can learn,” she added. who, based on three-pointers, took over the NCAA points record, both women’s and men’s.
The WNBA hopes Clark will be the marketing revolution – the Indiana jerseys sold out in almost an hour – who has been looking for a long time to make the leap in quality, like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird or later Michael Jordan once were in the NBA. The star has just set record after record at the amateur level, being one of her most surprising marks. the television audience of the NCAA women’s final: according to ESPN data, it became the most watched sporting event in English in the US since 2019 excluding American football and the Olympic Games (18.9 million viewers on average with a maximum of 24.1 million).
That’s why it’s not surprising that Indiana – coming off being one of the worst teams of the season – is going to have the greatest media exposure in the WNBA, still ahead of the Las Vegas Aces, champions of the last two years. 36 of Indiana’s 40 games will be nationally televised (in the US, broadcasts are generally statewide).
To take dimension of the Clark phenomenon, Indiana’s first game in the 2024 WNBA season will take place on May 14 against the Connecticut Sun in Connecticut. The cheapest ticket for that game available until the Draft cost $96.83. As a comparison, the “cheapest” ticket for Connecticut’s second game (against the Washington Mystics) sells for $24.87.
Yes indeed, What Clark will not have in the WNBA is a salary commensurate with what she will produce. It will be “just” $75,000 annual for the shooter, who has already signed contracts with companies such as Nike, Gatorade or StateFarm, for an estimated value at more than three million dollars.
The WNBA is the focus of criticism, like most women’s leagues, for the salaries it offers: According to their agreement, the maximum salary of the players this season will not reach $250,000 annually, while in the NBA the average salary this year is 9.7 million. But everything can change in 2025, when the current television agreement ends and, with Clark as standard bearer, the numbers skyrocket.
Of course, Clark will not be the only new gem of the future WNBA. The one from Iowa led a dream Draft for the league, where the athletic Cameron Brink stands out (number 2, chosen by the Los Angeles Sparks; averages of 17.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 3.7 blocks), the 2.01 meter Brazilian giant Kamilla Cardoso (3rd, Chicago Sky; 14.4 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks to win with South Carolina) or the histrionic Angel Reese (7th, also with Chicago Sky; 18.6 points, 13.4 rebounds and 1.9 steals), who also starred with Clark in a captivating sporting and verbal rivalry in the NCAA.