Is Caitlin Clark a bigger star than any of the young NBA talent?

[Patches Perry]

By virtue of being a woman, she taps into markets that no NBA player can, while still picking up a lot of the normal hoop heads.

She is also really fun to watch. Her long three point bombs are must-watch and she is an extremely gifted passer. It's like watching a Curry/Magic hybrid.

There are other players (I have great hope that JuJu will eventually be a megastar too) that are very good at basketball but Caitlin Clark is naturally going to be the spark that gets people paying attention to the league as a whole, which will have downstream effects for everyone.

[Ice Man]

No. She is a reason to stay away from the WNBA. Very selfish basketball player.

It seems strange to describe the league's assist leader as "very selfish."

As a side note, I lhink among Cailtin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and JuJu Watkins, Paige will likely have the best WNBA career. But she will be the least famous of those three players, because her game is the most well-balanced and least flashy.

[Drakeem]

Yeah, sure.

Numbers say otherwise. What new eyes have Jokic and Giannis brought to the sport? Clark has single handedly made a boring sport stuck in perpetual decline relevant to the masses. And she did so in weeks. I'm still not watching but again, the numbers and the fact that I know more about the WNBA than I care for is proof enough. Your granny probably has a Clark jersey stashed away.

Which numbers? Where?

How many people know her in Italy, China, Greece, Spain? France, Serbia or wherever.
Nobody watches WNBA overseas.

Compare WNBA ratings pre and before the Clark injury and there you go. Then compare the numbers before and after Giannis and Jokic were drafted. Or whenever they are injured. Do league numbers go down? no? The argument you are making about overseas play is irrelevant as well. Giannis and Jokic are foreign players who of course will be known more overseas. I'm simply evaluating the impact Clark has had in her first year in a league and what that has done for the league in terms of dollars and eyes. She has moved the needle. Jokic isn't moving anything but his ponies. Giannis meanwhile is only relevant because he could be traded to more relevant markets. No one was paying attention to him this year.

Clark doesn't need a big market to be relevant or even be in a popular sport. She is a marketing machine and turns trash into gold no matter where she plays.

The boost is going to be bigger because the WNBA itself is at a much lower status level than the NBA. There's really isn't much one player in the NBA can do to have the same impact today because the NBA is already a global money making machine.

Despite that though, the best NBA players will still be known by more people around the world. The Clark hype is still limited to certain subset of people.

[CS707]

Huge star. As big as anyone out there right now. I question the sustainability though.

[OldSchoolNoBull]

No. She is a reason to stay away from the WNBA. Very selfish basketball player.

It seems strange to describe the league's assist leader as "very selfish."

As a side note, I think among Cailtin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and JuJu Watkins, Paige will likely have the best WNBA career. But she will be the least famous of those three players, because her game is the most well-balanced and least flashy.

I'd also give a shout to Sabrina Ionescu. Clark is quite obviously the biggest star and driver of WNBA ratings, but I do feel like this renewed interest in the WNBA in recent years started when Sabrina was coming out in 2020 - there was a lot of hype, she got some big endorsement deals, had a friendship with Kobe, etc - and while I know most don't even consider her the best player on her team, she is the second best player on a defending champion that so far this season is undefeated with a 19 point average margin of victory.

[Lalouie]

My grandma is dead but my mom is old and she knows all the Celtics, plus Bron, Steph, Draymond, Giannis, Luka, KD, Jokic, Wemby, Embiid I think, Paul George for some reason, Booker because he dated a Kardashian, Haliburton and Brunson after this years playoffs, and probably a handful of other guys. And she knows there's a guy in OKC she's trying to think of but can never remember SGA's name haha.

She also knows Caitlin Clark from when CC was blowing up in the college Final 4 a couple years ago but hasn't mentioned her since.

I just realized I have absolutely no point here, so yeah, this concludes my post about my mom.

I think you should stop watching sports 24/7 and while your ma is asleep... and pleeeeze... turn down the volume. this is disturbing behavior

[Lalouie]

Her impact is bigger in the WNBA than any of the younger NBA players because NBA is a lot more popular and they have a lot more players that can hold the sport. NBA is NOT dependent on one specific players to get views or people to show up at games.

the key word in the topic is YOUNG.
as in the phrase young NBA talent.

There is no young talent in the nba that can "hold the sport", as witness the lousy finals ratings being propped by two young teams

[SalsaNchips]

Clark would be even more popular if her league wasnt such a bottleneck to her growth.

[JulesWinnfield]

Star figures transcend things like ratings though. More people know LeBron as a figure than ever actually watch NBA games. Simone Biles is a big star but who really pays attention to gymnastics outside of once every 4 years.

As someone who doesn't even watch the WNBA, I find Clark mentioned a lot more now in general media than most of the NBA star's today. I've just never encountered that before, because yeah generally the reach of a WNBA player is about 100x less than an NBA player.

That's because the media is trying desperately to prop up women's sports.

Revenue, not media hype, is a much more accurate measurement of how much people actually care about these things.

You speak like what you are saying is correct, but it's not at all.

Look at TV ratings. Caitlin Clark games averaged 1.8M viewers on national TV. The average ESPN/TNT NBA game averages 1.5M viewers this season.

So Caitlin clark already outdraws the average NBA game. She is more popular.

That 1.8 million average is a number strictly tied to national tv games this season. She has only played 4 games this season. And I’m not even sure if all 4 were on national tv. So we are using a figure of like 3(?) games and comparing it against a much larger sample of all games played on tnt this season. And the biggest nba stars will draw higher than the average nba game.

One of those few games this season for Clark was the season opener and another was against angel Reese, which are going to be two of their biggest draws all season. Last season her games averaged 1.1 million. Still impressive. But the 1.8 million average this season is literally less than a handful of games and probably not sustainable

[jokeboy86]

That's because the media is trying desperately to prop up women's sports.
.

Heres something that really confuses me. The NBA players support women's hoopers almost universally. They go to games, they talk about them on social media, share their highlights etc..

Random dudes on the internet though. Super threatened by the very idea anyone could care about women's sports just because they don't.

This despite the USWNT is a much bigger draw than the men's team. Every time the Olympics rolls around the biggest ratings draws are around women's gymnastics or figure skating or around a star female swimmer or track athlete or.....

First college athlete with a 7 figure NIL deal was Paige....

I do not understand why some of you hate women getting attention in sports. Nobody is demanding you enjoy it or anything, but this continued need to disparage it is weird.

There are a lot of angry males in society nowadays. Look at all fake created YT channels gloating about the WNBA doing bad when Clark isnt playing or even when a female led sci-fi/superhero movie does poorly. WWW and social media hasnt helped. I guess I just dont understand why all these males are so angry and taking it personally that people are trying to do things differently than what was done in the past. It shouldnt be that deep.

[Ice Man]

I think the proper way to address this issue is to ask the following question. If you were an advertiser of a mass-market item that is gender neutral, say a fast-food restaurant or shoe brand, who would you rather have as your spokesperson?

1) Cailtin Clark
2) Any NBA player under the age of 30.

I'm pretty sure that #1 is the correct answer, with the possible exception of Wemby.

[jokeboy86]

No. She is a reason to stay away from the WNBA. Very selfish basketball player.

It seems strange to describe the league's assist leader as "very selfish."

As a side note, I think among Cailtin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and JuJu Watkins, Paige will likely have the best WNBA career. But she will be the least famous of those three players, because her game is the most well-balanced and least flashy.

I'd also give a shout to Sabrina Ionescu. Clark is quite obviously the biggest star and driver of WNBA ratings, but I do feel like this renewed interest in the WNBA in recent years started when Sabrina was coming out in 2020 - there was a lot of hype, she got some big endorsement deals, had a friendship with Kobe, etc - and while I know most don't even consider her the best player on her team, she is the second best player on a defending champion that so far this season is undefeated with a 19 point average margin of victory.

To me it started when the Aces started in Vegas and Mark Davis bought the team and also drafted Aja Wilson. There just seemed to be a considerable amount of buzz when the Aces got to Vegas that got more attention than usual for a relocation/new franchise. Also the attention that Kobe was giving the league also brought more attention too and in some ways tragically his and his daughter's death brought even more attention to women's basketball in general. As someone who's always paid attention to the WNBA since the beginning I think the league was starting to get more attention even before Clark and I think would've been trending up(slower obviously) even without her.

The only thing I think may put a ceiling on Clark's rise is I dont think she can be the best player in the league. That says nothing about her and more to do with how hard it is for guards/wings to be the WNBA's best player. WNBA and womens basketball is still dominated by the bigs. Last guard to even win the MVP was Taurasi and even then I dont know if I ever considered her at any point the best player in the league.

As far as popularity I also dont know how long Clark may be the most popular and biggest star too because imo I think JuJu has more star power than Clark.

[Indomitable]

Her impact is bigger in the WNBA than any of the younger NBA players because NBA is a lot more popular and they have a lot more players that can hold the sport. NBA is NOT dependent on one specific players to get views or people to show up at games.

the key word in the topic is YOUNG.
as in the phrase young NBA talent.

There is no young talent in the nba that can "hold the sport", as witness the lousy finals ratings being propped by two young teams

Let them push their agenda. Most people I know could careless about the WNBA. They are pushing no one caring to 1 out 1000 caring. That is a low bar.

[Ugly0598]

That's because the media is trying desperately to prop up women's sports.
.

Heres something that really confuses me. The NBA players support women's hoopers almost universally. They go to games, they talk about them on social media, share their highlights etc..

Random dudes on the internet though. Super threatened by the very idea anyone could care about women's sports just because they don't.

This despite the USWNT is a much bigger draw than the men's team. Every time the Olympics rolls around the biggest ratings draws are around women's gymnastics or figure skating or around a star female swimmer or track athlete or.....

First college athlete with a 7 figure NIL deal was Paige....

I do not understand why some of you hate women getting attention in sports. Nobody is demanding you enjoy it or anything, but this continued need to disparage it is weird.

There are a lot of angry males in society nowadays. Look at all fake created YT channels gloating about the WNBA doing bad when Clark isnt playing or even when a female led sci-fi/superhero movie does poorly. WWW and social media hasnt helped. I guess I just dont understand why all these males are so angry and taking it personally that people are trying to do things differently than what was done in the past. It shouldnt be that deep.

There's a lot of angry females in society nowadays. Always flipping people off, bringing men down, using social media as a tool.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

Her impact is bigger in the WNBA than any of the younger NBA players because NBA is a lot more popular and they have a lot more players that can hold the sport. NBA is NOT dependent on one specific players to get views or people to show up at games.

the key word in the topic is YOUNG.
as in the phrase young NBA talent.

There is no young talent in the nba that can "hold the sport", as witness the lousy finals ratings being propped by two young teams

You guys really like to push a narrative. Game 3 had a peak of 11 Million. It is not great compared to say if the Knicks, Lakers, Warriors, or Celtics would play, but that’s still 11.4 million at its peak , 9.19 million average throughout the game and who knows how many were watching through streaming. That “lousy ratings” is because it’s being compared to other finals seasons.

[JayMKE]

NBA media literally ignores most of its young stars, especially if they play for a small market and or are foreign. All you hear about are LeBron, Curry, KD. Clark is talked about constantly, probably more than anyone not named LeBron.

[Cavsfansince84]

Maybe/probably. This is due in part to the wnba lacking any real stars before she came along and got a big push while the nba has like 5-6 big stars and most of them are over 30. So yes I do think you could make a case for Caitlin being a bigger star than Jokic/Luka/Shai at least in the us.

[MrBigShot]

You could make a case for it because she has become a pop culture icon.

I don't like the comparison to NBA players, because quite frankly a big reason Clark has become so huge, in addition to her entertaining play style and skill, is that the WNBA just quite frankly is really lacking in overall talent. There are no transcendent generational players, and the top players are pretty good, but the average player pales in comparison to the average nba counterpart, even accounting for differences in athleticism and height/length.

[ryan in Maine]

I'd sign her.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

I don’t think she’s a bigger star than some NBA players, but she’s done more for the WNBA, than anyone currently in the NBA has done for the NBA.