Caitlin Clark’s phenomenon in the world of professional sports has been compared by ‘Forbes’ magazine to Taylor Swift’s impact on the music industry. The 22-year-old athlete, who has broken countless records in her debut in the WNBA, has just been named rookie of the year for the women’s basketball league in the United States after sweeping the voting: only one vote against out of a possible 67 , which went to the one who has been his great rival for years, Angel Reese, of the Chicago Sky.
The Indiana Fever point guard has averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 8.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game in 35 minutes of play in his debut campaign, where he has been able to lead the franchise in Indianapolis to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. He has not missed a single game of the 40 scheduled for the competition. After starting the season poorly with a balance of 1-8, they managed to balance the balance with 20 wins and 20 losses. In the first round, the team lost 2-0 to the Connecticut Sun, who have been among the three best squads in the competition for four seasons. Despite the lopsided 93-69 loss, the first game of the tie was the most watched WNBA playoff game since the 2000 Finals, with 1.8 million viewers. The second raised that figure to 2.5 million.
Clark has unleashed a true fever for the women’s discipline as she already did during her legendary university career, which ended as the leading scorer in NCAA history. The television audiences and attendance at the pavilions have broken all previous records, and the accumulation of records on and off the track is counted in the dozens. “Is there a record for rookie records?” summed up one of his sponsors to commemorate his exploits. Six networks with rights to broadcast the WNBA celebrated their historic audience peak this season, and in all cases the Fever were playing. The average crowd in the stands for Indiana was 17,000 spectators at home and 15,000 at home, forcing some matches to be moved to larger pavilions. Their last regular season game, in Washington, brought 20,711 fans to the stands, the absolute top of the competition.
In this brilliant debut, Clark has set the record for assists in a WNBA season, with 377. She is also the rookie who has scored the most points (769) and triples (122) in the competition. “I am very grateful for the award, but above all for the support received throughout the season from my family, friends, teammates, organization and the fans who cheered us on all year. “I am very proud of what we have achieved and excited about the future,” said the player after receiving the distinction.
the moment she got the call 📞
Caitlin Clark was surprised after practice with a call from @WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert where she was announced as 2024 Rookie of the Year.
then, the whole team instantly celebrated 🥹 pic.twitter.com/emEBb54BeQ
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) October 3, 2024
Despite her magnificent performance and the boost that the discipline has achieved thanks to her figure, the player from Des Moines, Iowa, has been ambitious for next season. “I am demanding. I’ve had a solid year, but the fun thing is that I feel like I’m barely scratching the surface of my game and I push myself on every little detail. I want to help this franchise, and I have a lot of room to improve and be able to do so,” he added. LeBron James recently defined Clark as a transcendental player. “She has the vision, the spirit, she is contagious with her game and people want to play with her,” he noted in an interview with ‘Esquire’. “I have a lot of respect for what he has done, because I also know what it is like to be chosen in the draft, to be the face of the franchise and to have the scrutiny of many people who do not believe that you are prepared.”
Beyond the spotlight, Clark has been indirectly involved in several controversies. Her case illustrated once again the excessive differences between the salaries of the female and male elite, where Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, his equivalent in the NBA, earned 12 times more in his debut campaign. Also raising eyebrows was the notable commercial interest of several brands, denounced by several African-American athletes as another case of racism within American society. In their first games, there were those who denounced the dirty play of some of their rivals after several consecutive hits on the field.
Clark, who has known how to stay out of these shadows, including his non-inclusion on the American list for Paris 2024, has maintained an intense media duel with Reese, as Larry Bird and Magic Johnson did in the NBA in the 2010s. eighty. “When I think about the impact of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese on basketball, they remind me a lot of Larry Bird and me,” said the Los Angeles Lakers legend in June. “Angel and I have always been great competitors, and she would say the same. It’s not just us in women’s basketball… it takes several people to be really good,” said the great protagonist of the WNBA season, pointing to their rivalry as a mere media construct.
The league will soon know its finalists for the 2024 season. Sabrina Ionescu’s New York Liberty leads 2-0 in its tie against MVP A’Ja Wilson’s Las Vegas Aces, reigning champions, while the Minnesota Lynx tie with the Sun (1-1) on the other side of the box.
#Caitlin #Clark #elected #WNBA #rookie #year