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phanman wrote:

azcatz11 wrote:Well, she is arguably the most popular current athlete in the United States. I'd be surprised if she takes $5M to play in a gimmick league. It's like PornHub paying Nicole Kidman $20M for a porno...I just doubt she takes it.

It's a horrible analogy considering that:
1) Nicole Kidman isn't a porn star, she is a highly successful actress
2) Nicole Kidman has earned far more than 20m throughout her career so this isn't the same financial windfall as it is for Caitlin
3) You may consider the big 3 to be a gimmick league, but at the end of the day its still half court competitive basketball with real stakes

Are you trying to argue that joining the big 3 will decrease both her marketability and endorsement earning power? I can see absolutely no drawback if she participates in both leagues and really the WNBA isn't in a position to play hardball with her here. That level of exposure is simply beneficial to all parties.

With that said, all the rumors, interviews, articles regarding the NBA trying to supress the Big 3 is real and I can see something fishy going on behind the scenes to prevent it from happening.

KembaWalker wrote:If she was prioritizing money she would have stayed in college another year

Woodsanity wrote:

HMFFL wrote:

OdomFan wrote:Ice Cube should just make a deal with the whole WNBA. promote the hell out of it, lower the rims. Put a whole new spin on Womens basketball with talent like Caitlin Clark as the poster of it all.

Lowering the rim instantly discredits any league.

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Well the wnba is losing money every year and is subsidized by the nba.

Wnba players are already using smaller balls so its not the same game anyway. If there were more dunks due to lowered rims, I bet viewership would go up.

At any rate its not like they are doing well currently anyway....

Optms wrote:

JustBuzzin wrote:This honestly sounds like a good deal for her.

The WNBA is just not very popular. Sure she goes to her dream league growing up, but do we really think people are going to start watching WNBA games because of Clark?

Not for me. As an outsider, I'm not touching that league even with her in it.

I would tune in to see her in the big 3 though. That would make me more inclined to start following her. But yeah no, I know of her because of the hype. Still didn't touch her college games. Won't change when she's in the wnba.

D.Brasco wrote:

UcanUwill wrote:Does sound like a juvenile career path from first glance, and maybe it is, but knowing in how bad a shape WNBA is, it brings at least a moment of reflect and thought what to do. I mean, if she serious about her place in history of the sport and all, she will play professional women basketball as it is, but this is a bit interesting.

How much money does Ice Cube have anyway? I get that 5 Mil. is probably not that much to him, but I could not imagine him being so successful to a point he is signing PRO athletes for year multi million dollar contracts...

It'll all come from investors and sponsors. 5 mil is a drop in the bucket to what signing one of the biggest names in basketball (almost biggest atm?) would do for an upstart league.

JustBuzzin wrote:This honestly sounds like a good deal for her.

The WNBA is just not very popular. Sure she goes to her dream league growing up, but do we really think people are going to start watching WNBA games because of Clark?

She makes more money in the Big 3 while also having better travel. The WNBA has shown us they don't really care about their players from the travel to the hotels it's all a joke for a professional athlete.


Clark please take this offer and don't think twice about it! She could be the face of that league and grow it bigger than the WNBA. Hell maybe she opens up opportunities for women coming out of college. They could totally become more popular than the WNBA.

Statlanta wrote:Is this the equivalent of the Globetrotters asking Chamberlain to play for them?

Ryoga Hibiki wrote:How much is she making from NIL?

joesha1698 wrote:This makes no sense. How is she going to compete with men in this league? Someone explain this to me.

EH15 wrote:

joesha1698 wrote:This makes no sense. How is she going to compete with men in this league? Someone explain this to me.

She is not accepting and this is just a publicity stunt by Cube as he's been trying to cash out on his Big 3 league for the past couple years. No one cares about the Big 3, now the story is on the Big 3.

Impuniti wrote:

D.Brasco wrote:

UcanUwill wrote:Does sound like a juvenile career path from first glance, and maybe it is, but knowing in how bad a shape WNBA is, it brings at least a moment of reflect and thought what to do. I mean, if she serious about her place in history of the sport and all, she will play professional women basketball as it is, but this is a bit interesting.

How much money does Ice Cube have anyway? I get that 5 Mil. is probably not that much to him, but I could not imagine him being so successful to a point he is signing PRO athletes for year multi million dollar contracts...

It'll all come from investors and sponsors. 5 mil is a drop in the bucket to what signing one of the biggest names in basketball (almost biggest atm?) would do for an upstart league.

I hope you meant women only because otherwise

JayMKE wrote:Battle of the sexes is one of the biggest marketing tropes there is and the only risk is for the guys to get embarrassed, its a win-win for female athletes even if they get smoked since it speaks to their courage and perseverance. They are ex NBA players who are way bigger than her not some high school team but real pros, if she shows she can hang it would be defining moment in women’s & American sports in general. If not, who cares? At least she tried and should be respected for it.

Its bonkers some of you guys are like don’t do it, the WNBA is not the equivalent to the NBA and something like this grows the game which indirectly will boost the WNBA too.