The recognition of girls’s basketball, and ladies’s sports activities typically, skyrocketed in 2024, and it’s unquestionably that Caitlin Clark may be thanked for that.
Not solely was Clark the preferred feminine athlete over the last 12 months, Time named her their Athlete of the Yr, a title held by worldwide stars like Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Simone Biles, Serena Williams and Tiger Woods in recent times.
Clark started the yr on the again finish of her record-breaking faculty ball profession. As a senior at Iowa, she was a number of months faraway from dropping the nationwide championship to Angel Reese and the LSU Tigers, the place Reese’s “You Cannot See Me” taunt was the unofficial begin of a rivalry each on and off the court docket (though Clark, herself, will inform you there is not any such factor between them).
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Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever talks to the media throughout an introductory press convention on April 17, 2024, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. (Ron Hoskins/NBAE through Getty Photographs)
In any case, the gesture prompted loads of dialogue, which was additional tradition wars this summer season with Clark as a WNBA participant. That, although, didn’t come earlier than she set the NCAA record (each women and men) for many factors scored in a school profession and one other nationwide championship look.
In April, she was the No. 1 general choose and virtually simply as she stepped on a WNBA court docket, the dialog started about whether or not her recognition was as a consequence of her race. In truth, it was a declare that WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson had made, saying Clark being White was a “huge thing” when it got here to Clark’s recognition.
All through the season, although, Clark was in a position to block out the noise about what was mentioned about her off the court docket, even when it regarded like she was attacked on the court docket by her opponents. Laborious fouls got here amid allegations of racism from each Indiana Fever and Iowa followers, a declare made by the aforementioned Reese.
However Clark had repeated time and time once more that she was targeted on basketball, and that certain seemed to be the case. In her rookie season, she not solely broke rookie data, even WNBA data now naked Clark’s identify.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark reacts throughout a first-round WNBA basketball playoff recreation in opposition to the Solar, Sept. 25, 2024, in Uncasville, Conn. (AP Photograph/Jessica Hill)
Clark’s appearances in video games introduced historic viewership to each the school and professional ranges. The ultimate three video games of her faculty profession had been the most-watched ladies’s faculty basketball video games ever. She additionally had a number of of her regular-season video games draw more viewers than WNBA playoff games, and her WNBA matchups with Reese had been a few of the most-viewed WNBA video games ever.
WNBA groups even needed to transfer to bigger arenas merely due to the ticket demand Clark drew; the Fever sold 90 times more tickets this previous yr than in 2023.
Clark was named the Rookie of the Year for her historic marketing campaign throughout which she set the document for probably the most assists in a single season in league historical past. She carried the Fever to a playoff look after a gradual begin, and she or he rapidly grew to become a double-double machine. She even set a single-game document with 19 assists. She additionally grew to become the primary rookie to document a triple-double, registering two of them.
Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever celebrates through the recreation in opposition to the Los Angeles Sparks on Might 24, 2024, at Crypto.com Enviornment in California. (Adam Pantozzi/NBAE through Getty Photographs)
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She acquired probably the most votes for the All-Star Sport and was simply the fifth rookie in league historical past to make the All-WNBA first-team.
It ought to go with out saying that Clark is effectively on her method to an illustrious profession, and much more spectacular is what she did this yr with all the surface noise.
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