Caitlin Clark has been the catalyst for a lot of the positives in the WNBA.
Ratings are as high as they were when the league first launched, and overall attendance and interest are on the rise.
Though Clark is just one part of the growing league, WNBA legend Sue Bird suggested the “negative” stereotypes about women’s basketball have changed because of the Indiana Fever rookie.
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Caitlin Clark (22) of the Indiana Fever shoots the ball against the Dallas Wings at the College Park Center July 17, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
“Caitlin, in particular her long-distance threes. I always said this. We finally got the antidote to dunking,” Bird told the “Good Game with Sarah Spain.” “All we heard our entire existence was, ‘You guys are boring. You don’t dunk. Oh, maybe you should lower the rims. It would be more exciting.’
“And the thing about the long three is, it is what it is. The distance is the distance. It goes in or it doesn’t. It’s the same for everybody. So, in a sense, I think she snapped people out of this trance that was very negative towards women’s basketball, and now she’s brought this huge group.”
Clark’s ability to light up the scoreboard in quick spurts has delighted the fan base and drawn more fans to her road games.
Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm reacts after losing to the Las Vegas Aces, 97-92, in the final game of her career, Game 4 of the 2022 WNBA semifinals at Climate Pledge Arena Sept. 6, 2022, in Seattle. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
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This past week, Clark fans arrived in full force at the Target Center as the Fever knocked off the Minnesota Lynx.
Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said before the game she didn’t give “not even one s—” about the increased attendance. But, after the game, she had to acknowledge it
“Everybody knows that the reason why our teams around the league are having sellouts are because Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are coming to town,” she said, via the New York Post.
“Angel Reese has impacted their attendance at the Chicago games, and I suspect on the road as well. So, what the league can do is to be ready to go to capitalize on the moments. But it’s much like when we saw [Larry] Bird and Magic [Johnson] came in the league [NBA], right? The league has been building for a watershed moment, and we’re here. And now you have to take advantage of it.”
Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever warms up before tipoff against the Dallas Wings at College Park Center July 17, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
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Reeve will get to coach against Clark and the WNBA All-Star team Saturday night in a meeting of Team USA and the league’s best players.
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