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The impact she has as an individual in her league is pretty unprecedented:



That got me thinking, if she's actually a bigger figure in basketball today than any of the young rising NBA stars of today? Ant, Haliburton, SGA, Wemby etc.

I never thought we'd see a day when a WNBA player has that argument.

No surprise. Outside or Lebron and Curry, she's a bigger star than all the rest of the NBA's elite. I wouldn't limit it to just young stars.

Who do you think your grandma knows more? Caitlyn Clark or Giannis and Jokic? Yeah, going with Caitlyn.

she's the lebron james of her sport when it comes to hype/media so i'd say yeah. wemby is probably the only one close.

Yes, she easily is.

The NBA has done an awful and horrendous job marketing the new generation.

They’re too stuck on Lebron, and Steph, and KD. Milking that teat beyond death.

Wingy wrote:Yes, she easily is.

The NBA has done an awful and horrendous job marketing the new generation.

They’re too stuck on Lebron, and Steph, and KD. Milking that teat beyond death.

The problem is Adam Silver. Lebron, Curry and even KD, those are all stars from the Stern generation that Silver is milking.

But star since Adam took over has the NBA been marketed well? Yeah, a lot of foreigners, understandable, but American stars like James Harden, AD, Westbrook, Kawhi, Tatum, etc. have all been marketed poorly. The NBA was doing a much better job of marketing guys like Stephon Marbury and Steven Francis back in the day.

Optms wrote:No surprise. Outside or Lebron and Curry, she's a bigger star than all the rest of the NBA's elite. I wouldn't limit it to just young stars.

Who do you think your grandma knows more? Caitlyn Clark or Giannis and Jokic? Yeah, going with Caitlyn.

Yeah...no.
How many know her outside the US?
My grandma knows Giannis.
My 7 year old nephew knows Jokic.
The guys you mentioned are global superstars.
Women's basketball is non existent globally.

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.

In USA? Sure

Globally? Not quite.

KGtabake wrote:

Optms wrote:No surprise. Outside or Lebron and Curry, she's a bigger star than all the rest of the NBA's elite. I wouldn't limit it to just young stars.

Who do you think your grandma knows more? Caitlyn Clark or Giannis and Jokic? Yeah, going with Caitlyn.

Yeah...no.
How many know her outside the US?
My grandma knows Giannis.
My 7 year old nephew knows Jokic.
The guys you mentioned are global superstars.
Women's basketball is non existent globally.

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.

I would say yes

It's easy to over estimate the actual global reach of NBA stars, Wemby is from France and France's population is roughly 70 million, and it's not like Wemby is going to be a household name today in France. Besides that, it's not like German are checking extensively for Wemby, unless they are also NBA fans, same for Spain or Portugal, or whatever other country. Generally people are fans of players from their country.

I've heard Caitlin Clark's name from people that don't watch the NBA, or care about the NBA. I see Caitlin Clark on TV all the time, I think people who watch sports in general have a ton of respect for Caitlin Clark while, in general most people don't know a lot of the young guys in the NBA, and it shows with today's finals having 2 young stars and being not viewed.

I will say that Luka's move to LA has raised his profile immensely, it has drawn more attention to Luka and the NBA, and I could see an argument for Luka being more popular than CC in both America and Globally.

Yes, she's a bigger star than SGA, Jokic, Luka, Giannis, Brunson, Tatum, and others

Optms wrote:

KGtabake wrote:

Optms wrote:No surprise. Outside or Lebron and Curry, she's a bigger star than all the rest of the NBA's elite. I wouldn't limit it to just young stars.

Who do you think your grandma knows more? Caitlyn Clark or Giannis and Jokic? Yeah, going with Caitlyn.

Yeah...no.
How many know her outside the US?
My grandma knows Giannis.
My 7 year old nephew knows Jokic.
The guys you mentioned are global superstars.
Women's basketball is non existent globally.

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.

KGtabake wrote:

Optms wrote:

KGtabake wrote:

Yeah...no.
How many know her outside the US?
My grandma knows Giannis.
My 7 year old nephew knows Jokic.
The guys you mentioned are global superstars.
Women's basketball is non existent globally.

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.

Not even close man. You're telling me you're all watching a game headlined by Clark over a game headlined by the likes of Tatum, Ant, Shai, Wemby, Luka, Hali, Brunson, KD, Kawhi, AD, Kyrie etc? Don't lie to yourselves.

KGtabake wrote:

Optms wrote:

KGtabake wrote:

Yeah...no.
How many know her outside the US?
My grandma knows Giannis.
My 7 year old nephew knows Jokic.
The guys you mentioned are global superstars.
Women's basketball is non existent globally.

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.

Do we actually have statistics to back up that Anthony Edwards or SGA, her basketball contemporaries are bigger than her there?

The NBA is if course a bigger league than the WNBA nobody will deny that but it's not comparing leagues but Clark to her NBA star equivalents.

Optms wrote:

KGtabake wrote:

Optms wrote:
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.

Giannis and Jokic are global sports icons.
Clark is known only inside the US.
Your whole point about stardom means nothing if you don't understand this.

Kobe Bryant was colossal in China. Not only in the US. That was the difference with LeBron and any other in Beijing's Olympics.
The others were stars in the US back then. Kobe was universal.

Enough with this nonsense.

No. Not even close

Clark is way bigger and more important to the WNBA than any NBA star is to the NBA, but that still doesn't make her much of a star because nobody watches the WNBA.

Last year, the NBA produced a revenue of $10.58 billion. The WNBA produced a revenue of $200 million. The NBA is literally 50 times bigger than the WNBA. So even if Clark is such a big star that she is personally responsible for half of the WNBA's revenue, that only an impact of $100M. A young NBA star like Anthony Edwards only needs to be responsible for 1% of the NBA's popularity to equal Clark's impact.

nate33 wrote:No. Not even close

Clark is way bigger and more important to the WNBA than any NBA star is to the NBA, but that still doesn't make her much of a star because nobody watches the WNBA.

Last year, the NBA produced a revenue of $10.58 billion. The WNBA produced a revenue of $200 million. The NBA is literally 50 times bigger than the WNBA. So even if Clark is such a big star that she is personally responsible for half of the WNBA's revenue, that only an impact of $100M. A young NBA star like Anthony Edwards only needs to be responsible for 1% of the NBA's popularity to equal Clark's impact.

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/commericals than most of the NBA star's today. I've just never encountered that before, because yeah historically the reach of a WNBA player has been about 100x less than an NBA player.

islandkid12 wrote:Not even close man. You're telling me you're all watching a game headlined by Clark over a game headlined by the likes of Tatum, Ant, Shai, Wemby, Luka, Hali, Brunson, KD, Kawhi, AD, Kyrie etc? Don't lie to yourselves.

She's probably more of a household name than any of those guys, not sure what that means for ratings.

nate33 wrote:No. Not even close

Clark is way bigger and more important to the WNBA than any NBA star is to the NBA, but that still doesn't make her much of a star because nobody watches the WNBA.

Last year, the NBA produced a revenue of $10.58 billion. The WNBA produced a revenue of $200 million. The NBA is literally 50 times bigger than the WNBA. So even if Clark is such a big star that she is personally responsible for half of the WNBA's revenue, that only an impact of $100M. A young NBA star like Anthony Edwards only needs to be responsible for 1% of the NBA's popularity to equal Clark's impact.

The overall revenue doesn't always tie neatly to star power. Baseball hasn't had a true transcendental superstar since Jeter / A-Rod more than a decade ago; Mike Trout and Bryce Harper could've walked unrecognized in most city streets. Yet MLB's revenue is still very high. Sometimes, revenue comes from just the MLB/NBA brand or the broader game itself. Caitlin Clark is a bigger star than all the active NBA stars besides Curry , LeBron , and Durant