With the new "Unrivaled" league set to begin later this month, one perennial WNBA All-Star feels it could possibly lead to change for women's basketball.
Brittney Griner is one of the 36 WNBA players going to Miami for the 3-on-3 league, which will give the game a "different look," the Phoenix Mercury star said to ESPN recently.
"[Unrivaled] is bringing something new to women's basketball," Griner said. "They're trying to give us a different look, a different feel. We can bring everybody together in one spot. They're really pouring in a lot. Unrivaled is showing that you don't need a lot of time to pull resources together to be able to put a good product out there."
The WNBA saw a huge uptick in viewership and attendance, and it's pretty clear that Caitlin Clark is the catalyst for that. Despite Clark's presence, though, it's taken a long while for WNBA players to fight for more.
This past season was the first where teams had chartered flights, while the average salary is still a little less than $150,000 (Clark's was $86,000, but she earned millions from other endorsement deals).
It's been reported that Urivaled players will make more than $220,000 for their participation, and the season will only last two months.
"Hopefully, it helps the [WNBA] bring in more viewers, more [corporate] partners. It's definitely going to put more pressure on the [WNBA] to do better, honestly," Griner said.
"I think it puts pressure for sure. It's been amazing," Cooper said. "I'm grateful they're able to put some pressure on things we deserve and things we are pushing for."
Clark will not be playing in the league; she has not had an extended break from basketball since prior to her senior year at Iowa, which began in late 2023.
This is the first time Griner is participating in an offseason program since being released from a Russian prison in December 2022.
EXCLUSIVE: USC women's basketball teenage phenom JuJu Watkins isn't turning away any of the new fans in her sport, not even the ones that give her "headaches."
The meteoric rise of Caitlin Clark has injected women's basketball with waves of new fans, mainstream media hype and plenty of arguments between the new fans and old ones. These arguments are often about Clark's treatment by the league, other players and the media.
And some longtime women's hoops stars have denounced certain supporters of Clark and discouraged them from following the sport.
Former WNBA player and current Atlanta Dream executive Renee Montgomery said that many of Clark's fans "cannot be a representation of what the WNBA would want in their league" during an episode of her podcast in September. WNBA legend Sue Bird lashed out at this group in her podcast in November, claiming that some of them aren't even fans of Clark but are just "acting" as fans while "pushing racist agendas and pushing hate."
Clark herself said that some of her followers "aren't fans" but are "trolls" in her exit interview for her rookie WNBA season after Connecticut Sun players accused some of her fans of racism during a playoff series against Clark's Indiana Fever in September.
But the 19-year-old Watkins, who is currently on pace to break Clark's NCAA all-time career scoring record, isn't taking any of the new attention for granted as a college player.
"So many new fans being in the sport sometimes can be, not necessarily challenging, but can just kind of give you a headache a bit. Not a lot of people know what they're talking about sometimes. But it's great for the sport. The fact that people are watching is enough in itself," Watkins said, when asked by Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview about what challenges come with the sport's new attention.
"We would like it to be positive, but it's not always going to be like that, so as long as we continue to raise the numbers and viewership goes up, I think that's all we can ask for."
Watkins said she even wants those fans to cheer for her, too. But even if they end up "hating" her, she will still embrace the fact that they're paying attention.
When asked if she wants the sport's controversial new fans to cheer for her, too, Watkins answered, "Oh yeah. I love supporters and I also love haters.
"I think that's just a part of the game. There's so many sides to it. So it's the nature of the game and there's always going to be negative and positive aspects of it."
One of the most recent controversies surrounding Clark occurred when she was chosen as Time Magazine's Athlete of the Year. Some in the WNBA, including Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson during a CNN interview, criticized the decision to choose Clark for the award. Johnson said Clark was chosen because "It’s the way media plays out race" and it didn't do enough to recognize the other players in the league.
But Watkins thinks Time made the right call.
"I'm all for it," Watkins said. "I honestly think she deserves it. I don't think anyone has changed the trajectory of the sport so much, so I honestly think she deserves every bit of it."
Clark herself stoked backlash from some of her own supporters during the Time interview when she made the statement, "As a White person, there is privilege."
"It's super dope," Watkins said when asked about Clark's comments on White privilege. "For her to kind of bring that to light was cool."
Clark herself has acknowledged the outrage her comments sparked and, like Watkins, embraces the positive and negative attention that has come with it.
"With the way things are going and where the WNBA is going, you want that attention, and you embrace it, and that’s what makes this so fun," Clark said of the backlash at the "A Year in TIME" event in New York on Dec. 11.
Controversy has been a driving force behind the rise in women's basketball's popularity over the last two years. The rivalry between Clark and Angel Reese became one of the hottest in sports after their meeting in the 2023 NCAA women's basketball championship game, when Reese's LSU Tigers defeated Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes.
Reese pointed to her ring finger at the end of that game, unleashing mass controversy.
Then, after Clark led her team back to the title game in her senior year in 2024, the women's championship outperformed the men's game in TV ratings for the first time in history.
Watkins hopes and believes that the women's college game will continue to beat the men's in viewers, and she will do her part as one of the top stars in college to make that happen.
"I think that it's definitely a trend now," Watkins said of the women's college game getting more attention from men.
Watkins pointed to her recent history against UConn star Paige Bueckers as an example of something that can keep eyeballs on their sport with Clark and Reese now in the pros. USC's game vs. UConn on Dec. 21 averaged 2.23 million viewers, making it the second-highest-rated game ever shown on Fox Sports and the most-watched women's college basketball game so far this season.
"For that to not even be a March Madness matchup, and to see that, I can only imagine what it will be like in March," Watkins said.
As Watkins looks to keep the eyeballs on her sport and potentially chase down Clark's all-time scoring record, she has the choice to even tap into Clark herself as a resource to do this.
Watkins said Clark has offered her phone number, and that the teenager can reach out for advice from Clark any time.
Watkins hasn't taken Clark up on the offer yet, but is keeping the offer in her back pocket for the right time.
Angel Reese's Instagram account did not make it to 2025.
Reese's Instagram appeared to be deactivated on Thursday – but not before she posted a revealing outfit.
According to the New York Post, before Reese's account was no longer available, she posted herself in a dress that exposed most of her stomach and cleavage.
While the pictures are no longer on Instagram, Reese posted several videos on TikTok of herself in the dress.
In one video, she is lip-syncing "Date Night" by rapper YFN Lucci, who says in the song, "I just hope it last, give that girl my last. Codeine in a glass. She shaped like a coke bottle made of glass." In another, she raps a portion of Nicki Minaj's verse from Trey Songz' "Touchin' Lovin'."
It's not yet clear when the account was deactivated, nor is it known how she spent the New Year.
Reese was one of two rookies named an All-Star in the WNBA this past season, along with Caitlin Clark. Clark received 66 of the 67 Rookie of the Year votes, with Reese receiving the other.
The LSU alum, who had beaten Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2023 national championship, set the single-season record for most rebounds in WNBA history, but after her season was cut short due to injury, A'ja Wilson surpassed her and set a new record.
Reese will be playing in the 3-on-3 "Unrivaled" league in Miami that begins later this month.
She was the seventh pick of the WNBA Draft to the Chicago Sky and averaged 13.6 points and 13.1 rebounds in 2024.
She agreed with Travis that the NCAA should revert to its previous rules that players who transfer from school to school should have to sit out a full year before playing for a new school. However, Clark said exceptions should be made for athletes on teams that lose a head coach.
"I agree," Clark said when Travis spoke of bringing back the old system. "Or you get a free pass if your coach leaves. … But now we have people on their fourth school in their seventh year. It's just getting egregious."
Players have been transferring at historic rates in recent years after the transfer portal was introduced in October 2018. Prior to the introduction of the transfer portal, athletes needed permission from their coaches or athletic directors and were often denied those requests.
The transfer portal became even more frequently used after the legalization of NIL deals by universities as recruiting incentives in 2021. From 1906 until the summer of 2021, players were forbidden from profiting from their college athletic careers in any way.
Now, NIL is often a top factor for many athletes when choosing a school.
"It's crazy. … Adam Schefter is reporting like, 'Yes, they’ve negotiated a new deal for him to stay at the university,' and I'm like, ‘Yeah, where else is he going to go?’" Clark said.
In 2023, the NCAA tried to tighten its restrictions, introducing a new rule that only allowed underclassmen to transfer once without having to sit out a year. But an additional transfer as an undergraduate required the NCAA to grant a waiver allowing the athlete to compete immediately.
But the rule incited so much controversy, the NCAA was forced to put out a statement condemning "violent — and possibly criminal — threats directed at committee members" over the rule. The NCAA eventually gave up on the rule in March 2024 in response to a lawsuit from the U.S. Education Department, the District of Columbia and 10 states.
Athletes are now more free and incentivized than ever to transfer. Clark never took advantage of this system.
She spent her entire four-year NCAA women's basketball career at Iowa. She told the Kelces college sports has lost a sense of amateurism that separated it from pro sports.
"It's kind of sad. You lost a little bit of that amateurism of college sports, and that's why it's so fun," Clark said. "It's basically minor league football now."
Travis agreed with Clark.
"I'm too old school. I didn't get the opportunity to transfer, so," Travis said.
Travis spent four years at the University of Cincinnati from 2009-12 but only played three football seasons after he was suspended his sophomore season in 2010 for using marijuana.
Jason, who played his entire college career at Cincinnati as a walk-on running back who converted to offensive line, criticized players who leave before the playoffs.
"I don't think that people should be leaving before the playoffs. I think they should figure that out. I kind of think there should be a commitment level from the player of the university that there isn't right now," he said.
Caitlin Clark’s WNBA rookie season was one for the record books, but she also remembers the moment when she knew she was in pro ball.
Her "welcome to the WNBA" moment.
Clark appeared on the latest "New Heights" podcast with Travis and Jason Kelce and was asked about the moment when she was welcomed by fellow WNBA players.
"Somebody set a screen on me, and I hit my ear just perfect on the girl where my eardrum popped. And it ruptured," Clark said of her Fever game against the New York Liberty June 2. "I knew it right away because I’ve done it before [while tubing in a lake]. It hurts so bad. … That was my welcome to the W moment."
Clark said while her ear didn’t bleed, her hearing wasn’t the same for a few weeks.
"It takes months to heal," Clark added. "So, after the season, the doctor had to go back and forth and see if it closed. And if it doesn’t close, you have to have a minor procedure. But, lucky enough, it did close. So, I was fine."
The 104-68 beatdown by the Liberty against the Fever was Clark’s 11th game of her rookie season.
The injury occurred in the fourth quarter of the blowout, and Clark got attention from trainers on the bench before needing to walk back to the locker room at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Clark missed the rest of the game.
"I don’t wanna explain it. It’d probably be pretty gross. But, no, I feel fine," Clark told reporters at the time of the injury. "I can’t hear great out of one of my ears."
The injury didn't prevent Clark from breaking a number of records, including most assists in a season.
Clark was named Time's Athlete of the Year and the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year. She was also named a WNBA All-Star for the first time.
From being a senior in college and the star of the Iowa women’s basketball team that went to the national championship, to then being drafted right after and jumping into the WNBA season, a lot has happened in the life of Caitlin Clark in the past year.
The Indiana Fever star was left off the Olympic women’s basketball roster this past summer, a decision that sparked a lot of debate, but Clark said the break during the WNBA season due to the 2024 Paris Games was needed.
"We had the Olympic break, so I got a month off in the middle of the season because we had to pause the WNBA season because, you know, the 12 girls go and play in the Olympics. And everybody else, you’re not doing much, so [I] got like a month off, which I really needed, obviously, because I’ve been playing basketball for just a year straight," Clark said during a recent appearance on "New Heights."
The Fever started out 1-8 but rallied to finish 20-20 to make the playoffs. A big reason for the Fever’s late-season push was the improved play of Clark after the break.
Prior to the Olympic break, she was averaging 17.1 points per game. Following the break, she looked rejuvenated, averaging 23.1 points per game down the stretch.
Jason Kelce asked how Clark would define her whirlwind of a year in just two words.
"I would say, like, I don’t know, life-changing maybe? All in a good way, like, I mean, things just change really fast, as you guys know. That’s just how the world works and, especially with social media, people see a lot of your life, but that’s what makes it fun and why I’ve had so many cool opportunities, too. So, it’s crazy, like looking back at a year ago today or around this time, like, I was just beginning my senior year at college," Clark said.
"And obviously, you know, people knew who we were, and people attended our games, but it’s obviously not on the magnitude that it is now. So, like, life just changes fast, but that’s what makes it fun and cool and, you know, quickly started a new chapter of my life, too. Like moving here to Indianapolis, and feel lucky I’m still in the Midwest. I know you [Jason and Travis Kelce] like the Midwest."
Clark said she is looking forward to being able to have more of a routine in her second season with the Fever after the quick transition from college basketball in the WNBA.
"Yeah, for sure, I mean it’s just so unlike any other professional sport, really, from the standpoint of, so I played in the national championship, and I basically went to the draft right after, got picked, and then you basically pack up and move. Like, you’re moving in April, you don’t even finish senior year of college," Clark said.
"And I guess for you guys, what was it, you go to the [NFL] combine, how long do you have to prepare for the combine, two months? And then you get drafted, and you still got a little time to get acclimated to the new city, you have camp, whatever. It’s not like that, like camp for us is like a week and a half."
But Clark also said there was a benefit to things moving so quickly.
"I think it was good a little bit, too, like you don’t have time to overthink things, like it’s just like, boom, boom, boom, boom, like you’re just onto the next. But at the same time, you don’t, like, I feel like I never really ended the chapter of college. It was just like you up and left, but maybe that’s good. You don’t have a lot of time to think about it, so I think that’s definitely the weirdest part of, you know, women’s professional basketball and obviously college basketball, too, is just that change," Clark said.
Despite the quick transition into the WNBA, Clark still excelled.
She won the WNBA Rookie of the Year, was named an All-Star and led the WNBA in assists while also setting a record for most assists in a season with 337.
Clark set the rookie record for most total points scored in a season with 769, and she drained 122 3-pointers in her season, which is the second most in a single season in WNBA history.
It did not take long for colleges to start recruiting Caitlin Clark.
Travis Kelce said he heard that Clark's first recruitment letter came in seventh grade, and Clark confirmed that during a recent appearance on "New Heights."
The Indiana Fever star said she feels very fortunate with how her parents handled the early recruitment letters from schools.
"It’s honestly sad, like where college recruitment has kind of gone, it’s just insane. I feel very fortunate. My parents were just like, they told my older brother, ‘Go get the mail, like we don’t want your sister to see that.’ They wanted me to be in seventh grade and enjoy middle school and like hang out with your friends, like you shouldn’t be worrying about where you’re going to college," Clark said.
Clark said she did not think too much of it at the time, as she was just playing basketball and having fun.
"Seventh grade was wild, and I was playing up two years, so I was playing with high schoolers, but yeah, I didn’t really like think anything of it. I was just going out there and hooping and having fun. It’s kind of just what came with it," Clark said.
The former Iowa star said her parents protected her from potentially burning out from playing too much basketball.
"I played AAU, and then I played for my high school team, but my mom would be like, ‘She is not playing more than like three games or two games in one day, like that’s crazy,’ because sometimes they would want me to play for the seventh grade team and the eighth grade team. So, my parents were really good about that, like they didn’t want me to lose the love of it, like you don’t want to get burned out, you still want to be having fun when you’re doing it as a pro if you’re lucky enough," Clark said.
"And, maybe, as a kid, I was like, ‘Mom, no, like I can keep going, like I can keep playing,’ but looking back, I’m very fortunate for that, because I haven’t lost that fun of it and that passion for it and always wanting to get better and sometimes that’s why people get burned out. It is because they did it too much as a kid and their parents forced it on them or whoever forced it on them too much and that was never something I really had to deal with, so feel very fortunate."
Clark said she was in no rush to decide where she would go to college.
"I didn’t really take any visits until after my freshman year of (high school), and then I didn’t decide until my senior year. So, I was never in a rush and my parents did a really good job of making sure I have a really good circle around me, like it wasn’t always about college recruitment. I wasn’t like posting my offers, like also that wasn’t really a thing when I was growing up," Clark said.
Clark ended up choosing Iowa, saying she wanted to stay in the Midwest, and went on to have one of the most successful college careers of all time.
She is the NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader and was named the AP Player of the Year twice, among countless other accolades.
Iowa has already retired her No. 22 jersey number.
Following her success at Iowa, she was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft by the Fever.
Clark was named WNBA Rookie of the Year, was selected to the All-Star team, led the WNBA in assists, and helped lead the Fever to the playoffs in her rookie season.
Clark was also named Time magazine’s Athlete of the Year for 2024.
The popularity of women's basketball, and women's sports in general, skyrocketed in 2024, and it is without a doubt that Caitlin Clark can be thanked for that.
Not only was Clark the most popular female athlete over the last 12 months, Time named her their Athlete of the Year, a title held by worldwide stars like Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Simone Biles, Serena Williams and Tiger Woods in recent years.
Clark began the year at the back end of her record-breaking college ball career. As a senior at Iowa, she was several months removed from losing the national championship to Angel Reese and the LSU Tigers, where Reese's "You Can't See Me" taunt was the unofficial start of a rivalry both on and off the court (although Clark, herself, will tell you there's no such thing between them).
In any case, the gesture prompted plenty of discussion, which turned into further culture wars this summer with Clark as a WNBA player. That, though, did not come before she set the NCAA record (both men and women) for most points scored in a college career and another national championship appearance.
In April, she was the No. 1 overall pick and practically just as she stepped on a WNBA court, the conversation began about whether her popularity was due to her race. In fact, it was a claim that WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson had made, saying Clark being White was a "huge thing" when it came to Clark's popularity.
Throughout the season, though, Clark was able to block out the noise about what was said about her off the court, even when it looked like she was attacked on the court by her opponents. Hard fouls came amid allegations of racism from both Indiana Fever and Iowa fans, a claim made by the aforementioned Reese.
But Clark had repeated time and time again that she was focused on basketball, and that sure looked to be the case. In her rookie season, she not only broke rookie records, even WNBA records now bare Clark's name.
Clark's appearances in games brought historic viewership to both the college and pro levels. The final three games of her college career were the most-watched women's college basketball games ever. She also had several of her regular-season games draw more viewers than WNBA playoff games, and her WNBA matchups with Reese were some of the most-viewed WNBA games ever.
WNBA teams even had to move to larger arenas simply because of the ticket demand Clark drew; the Fever sold 90 times more tickets this past year than in 2023.
Clark was named the Rookie of the Year for her historic campaign during which she set the record for the most assists in one season in league history. She carried the Fever to a playoff appearance after a slow start, and she quickly became a double-double machine. She even set a single-game record with 19 assists. She also became the first rookie to record a triple-double, registering two of them.
She received the most votes for the All-Star Game and was just the fifth rookie in league history to make the All-WNBA first-team.
It should go without saying that Clark is well on her way to an illustrious career, and even more impressive is what she did this year with all the outside noise.
Phoenix Mercury guard Natasha Cloud took a shot at Elon Musk and other billionaires in posts on social media on Sunday after the passage of a stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown.
Musk and President-elect Donald Trump led the conservative rebellion against the initial plan to avert a partial shutdown, a bipartisan deal that came from negotiations between the top two Democrats and Republicans in both congressional chambers.
That bill, 1,547 pages, would have extended current government funding levels until March 14. However, GOP hardliners were angered by what they saw as unrelated measures attached to the bill, like a pay raise for congressional lawmakers, health care policy provisions and legislation aimed at revitalizing RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
It was scrapped as Trump and Musk threatened to force out of office any lawmaker who did not support pairing a CR with action on the debt limit.
It caused a huge controversy in the political arena hours before the House eventually passed the bill.
"So when y’all gone tell Elon to go back to Africa?" Cloud wrote on X.
"Im so glad ALL these billionaires have no idea how the 3 branches of government work….or how a bill gets passed into law. Shoutout to the 38 Republicans who shot the bill down in the House while being threatened & blackmailed."
All Democrats voted in favor of the bill, except Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who voted "present."
Cloud has been outspoken about the U.S. in the past. After Trump won the election, she took a swipe at women who voted for the Republican candidate.
"The privilege of celebrating rn is exactly what’s wrong with us as people," she added. "I am truly worried about my fundamental human rights.
"Racism, misogyny, and hatred of women are so deeply rooted into everything that is America. Until we fix the roots…it will never grow."
WNBA legend Sue Bird and former U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe weighed in on the backlash over Caitlin Clark’s remarks about White privilege in her interview with Time magazine.
The Indiana Fever star spoke about her supposed White privilege as she said the WNBA has been built on the backs of Black players.
"The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important," Clark said in the interview last week. "I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing."
Clark’s reaction sparked a ton of backlash on social media.
Bird said on the latest episode of her podcast with Rapinoe, "A Touch More," that the anger around the White privilege comments proved something about her fans.
"Now this faction of her fanbase which we’ve discussed before that is now disgusted with her acknowledging is just showing they were never really here for basketball," Bird said. "… Which by the way just proves that there are issues with race in this country. Like, to me, that just proves it. And I think where I’ve landed is I’d almost want to pose some questions."
Bird then wondered whether there would have been any outrage about the incidents Clark was involved in during the course of her rookie season if she were Black.
"I personally think she deserves to be Time Athlete of the Year," Bird continued. "I think she earned that, and she’s like, yeah, ‘I’ve done enough to earn this,’ and I agree and also is acknowledging her White privilege and that is something that you know you’re talking about your experience, that’s something I’ve had to acknowledge in my experience. I’ve won the championships, I’ve done the things, and there’s this other part to it that I’m also going to acknowledge.
"And that to me is just is the world we live in and to say it doesn’t exist is really saying you don’t live in the same world, or you’re not seeing the same things and that’s obviously the root of all the conversations that we see today, not just in women’s basketball, literally in our country period."
Bird added that, at the end of the day, her race did not score points.
Rapinoe took a shot at conservatives in her assessment.
"I think what Caitlin did in her quotes, or in the article, was speak explicitly about her White privilege, like and that is what is receiving so much criticism or backlash, and like that is the lesson," the former NWSL star said. "So, you know, for conservative media coming at her now that obviously they’re just showing their whole a--.
"If fans are upset about her saying that and just acknowledging what is true, I think that says a lot. But I think the more that you speak directly to it the clearer it becomes what your stance is, and then you can’t be used in that way. It doesn’t really leave your beliefs or your stance as a white player to any sort of interpretation.
"You’re taking the space and owning the narrative yourself. I think another thing that I’m constantly trying to think of and be aware of, and I want other people to be aware of also, anytime there is a positive story in women’s sports, the area, the sort of quote unquote area is immediately flooded with divisive narratives.
"But for all of us to just be aware of that, that anytime there’s anything positive or any honestly just any news at all in women’s sports, it’s just like immediately flooded with insanity and really divisive narratives. And I think to that, like when we as athletes are being used, when is your narrative, when is your likes being used, when are the things that you’re saying being used.
"You know the sort of like ecosystem of people in women’s sports that really do care about whether it’s you know athletes, fans, owners, people that work with teams, whatever. Like when are you being used by this like, sort of meta narrative or these like divisive narratives and to be really smart about that."
The Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team announced it will retire Caitlin Clark's jersey Feb. 2.
Clark's No. 22, which she wears for the Indiana Fever, will hang from the rafters at Carver-Hawkeye Arena after a ceremony honoring the program's most accomplished player.
Clark is expected to be in attendance, and the event will be broadcast on FOX.
"I'm forever proud to be a Hawkeye, and Iowa holds a special place in my heart that is bigger than just basketball," Clark said in the announcement.
"It means the world to me to receive this honor and to celebrate it with my family, friends and alumni. It will be a great feeling to look up in the rafters and see my jersey alongside those that I've admired for so long."
In four seasons at Iowa, Clark broke the NCAA's all-time scoring record among both men's and women's players, leading the team to the NCAA championship game twice. She was also a consensus National Player of the Year as a junior and senior.
Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz and famed alumni Henry and Patricia Tippie praised Clark's contributions in a joint statement.
"Caitlin Clark has not only redefined excellence on the court but has also inspired countless young athletes to pursue their dreams with passion and determination," the statement said.
"Her remarkable achievements have left an indelible mark on the University of Iowa and the world of women’s basketball. Retiring her number is a testament to her extraordinary contributions and a celebration of her legacy that will continue to inspire future generations. Hawkeye fans are eager to say thank you for so many incredible moments."
Clark was selected with the No. 1 pick in this year's WNBA Draft by the Fever after her Iowa career.
As a WNBA rookie in 2024, Clark set records for the most points and 3-pointers by a rookie in league history, while also becoming the first rookie to record a triple-double, a feat she accomplished twice. Her 337 assists not only were the most by a rookie, they were the most by any player ever in a single season.
Clark's jersey retirement will come just two months after Time magazine named her the publication's Athlete of The Year. The decision prompted praise, but also criticism from some, including Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson, who recently wondered in a CNN interview why Clark was chosen for the honor and not the entire WNBA. Johnson suggested it had to do with Clark's race.
Chicago Sky star Angel Reese revealed on the latest episode of her podcast that prisoners found out her mom’s address and started to write her love letters.
Reese, who attended Maryland before transferring to LSU and winning a national championship, said on "Unapologetically Angel" that her mom had to get police involved.
"When I was in college, somehow, some way, these men in jail used to send letters – like love letters. Somehow, one of them got my address, my mom’s address. And my mom had to like do all that and call the police and all that," she said.
"He talking about, ‘When I get out I’m coming for you. I’m going to be with you. We going to have kids.’ Sir, take a timeout."
Reese’s guest, Coco Jones, joked that the person who sent her the weird message should get an extra two years in prison for "scary behavior."
Reese, who is from Baltimore, played two seasons with the Terrapins before she transferred to LSU for her junior and senior seasons. She led the nation in scoring and rebounding during the 2022-23 season with 23 points and 15.4 rebounds per game.
She averaged 18.6 points and 13.4 rebounds per game.
The Sky selected her with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. She averaged 13.6 points and 13.1 rebounds per game in 34 games. Her season was cut short due to an injury.
Caitlin Clark's Time magazine cover was something Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson did not seem to appreciate after a record-breaking WNBA season.
Well, Clark's brother, Colin, appeared to send a jab back Johnson's way.
Colin Clark re-shared an old video from Front Office Sports on Sept. 19, which showed a record 20,711 fans in attendance at Capital One Arena in Washington for the Mystics’ game against his sister’s Indiana Fever.
It is the largest crowd to date in WNBA history, and the Mystics actually moved the game from its usual Entertainment and Sports Arena to the Capital One Arena to appease more fans in the 20,536-seat arena.
The WNBA saw its most-watched regular season in 24 years, while also seeing record attendance with a rookie class that was headlined by Clark, Angel Reese and others.
However, Clark’s presence as the No. 1 overall pick out of Iowa, where she already had a massive following as she became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history, helped the WNBA’s viewership, social media engagement and more explode.
"I’ve been able to captivate so many people that have never watched women’s sports, let alone women’s basketball, and turn them into fans," Clark told Time in her interview with the magazine for her Athlete of the Year cover.
However, Johnson took exception with Time, believing the WNBA as a whole should have been highlighted instead of just Clark.
"Why couldn’t they have put the WNBA on that cover and say, ‘The WNBA is the league of the year,’ because of all the talent that we have," Johnson said in her interview with CNN Sport this past Friday.
"When you single out one player, it creates hard feelings, so now you’re starting to hear stories of racism within the WNBA, and I don’t want to hear that."
Johnson serves as vice chair of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which also owns the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals.
"It has taken the WNBA almost 28 to get to the point where we are now, and this year something clicked with the WNBA, and it's because of the draft of the players that came in, it's not just Caitlin Clark, it's Reese," Johnson said. "We have so much talent out there that's so unrecognized, and I don't think we can just pin it on one player."
Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson spoke out against Time magazine for naming Caitlin Clark "Athlete of the Year" in an interview with CNN Sport on Friday, suggesting that the publication should have given the award to the entire WNBA.
Johnson even suggested the decision to give Clark the honor would incite feelings of "racism" within the league.
"Why couldn’t they have put the WNBA on that cover and say, ‘The WNBA is the league of the year,’ because of all the talent that we have," Johnson said. "When you single out one player, it creates hard feelings, so now you’re starting to hear stories of racism within the WNBA, and I don’t want to hear that."
Johnson went so far as to claim that Clark’s attention and the minting of the term "the Caitlin Clark effect," which has been associated with the attention she has brought to the league, is because of race.
"It’s the way media plays out race," Johnson said. "I feel really bad, because I’ve seen so many players of color that are equally as talented, and they never got the recognition they should have."
The owner also griped about the fact that Clark got a $28 million endorsement deal with Nike in April, which was the richest sponsorship contract for a women's basketball player.
"They would like to get the same kind of recognition. It all started with the whole Nike sponsorship that Caitlin got," Johnson said. "There are other players saying, ‘What about us?’"
Johnson is the Vice Chairman of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which also owns the NBA's Washington Wizards and NHL's Washington Capitals. Her Mystics directly capitalized on Clark's popularity to net historic ticket sales at the end of the regular season this year.
The Mystics' season finale against Clark's Indiana Fever was moved from the Mystics' home venue, the Entertainment and Sports Arena with just 4,200 seats, to the Wizards' venue, the Capital One Arena, which has a maximum capacity of 20,356 for basketball games. As a result, the Sept. 19 game between the Fever and Mystics was the most-attended WNBA regular season game in history, with 20,711 fans in attendance.
The Las Vegas Aces pulled off a similar move when they hosted the Fever at the larger T-Mobile Arena for a July 2 game instead of playing in the relatively smaller Michelob ULTRA Arena. For that game, 20,366 fans showed up, representing the highest regular-season single-game attendance since 1999.
Still, Johnson opted to publicly denigrate and undermine the attention that Clark gets in the CNN interview. Johnson also suggested that the WNBA's increase in popularity was also because of other WNBA rookies from the 2024 season, including Chicago Sky star Angel Reese.
"It has taken the WNBA almost 28 to get to the point where we are now, and this year something clicked with the WNBA, and it's because of the draft of the players that came in, it's not just Caitlin Clark, it's Reese," Johnson said. "We have so much talent out there that's so unrecognized, and I don't think we can just pin it on one player."
Johnson's Mystics did actually play a game against Reese's Sky at Capital One Arena this year as well, on June 6. However, that game only fetched 10,000 attendees – fewer than half the number at the game that featured Clark at the end of the season.
Johnson, the first Black woman to have a stake in three professional sports teams, is just one of many figures in sports and media to cite race for Clark's popularity in a negative light.
WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson has said Clark being White was a "huge thing" when it came to the rookie's popularity
In May, "The View" host Sunny Hostins said during an episode of that show that Clark's popularity was due, in part, to "white privilege."
Journalist Jemele Hill insisted it was "naive" to say that Clark's race as a White person, and sexuality as a straight woman, did not play into her popularity in the WNBA, where the vast majority of players are Black and many are lesbian, during an interview with the Los Angeles Times in May. Hill also insisted that Clark's popularity with those attributes is "problematic."
Former FS1 and ESPN host Skip Bayless, who was one of Clark's harshest critics leading up the start of her WNBA career, admitted that he pretended not to be impressed by her skill out of "guilt," and not wanting to stir racial division. He went so far as to suggest that Clark had become a "right-wing symbol" due to the fact that she is a White player excelling at the game of basketball.
Clark has been forced to answer questions about her race and alleged racism by her fans multiple times since coming into WNBA this year, including in the Time magazine profile that Johnson criticized.
"I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a White person, there is privilege," Clark told Time. "A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them."
Johnson says she doesn't believe that Clark had to make the statement, but that she "applauds" the phenom for doing so.
Caitlin Clark's recent comment about benefiting from White privilege in the WNBA has fueled hostile online debates since it was published in Time magazine on Tuesday. Former NCAA swimmer and OutKick host Riley Gaines got in on the action in her latest online debate with a left-wing figure.
This time, Gaines took on journalist Jemele Hill, who has been a staunch critic of Clark and those who have given the WNBA phenom credit for elevating the league.
Hill threw the first punch against Gaines, re-sharing a post on X, where the former swimmer criticized Clark for the comments.
"You holler all the time about supporting and ‘protecting’ women, and yet the moment that Caitlin Clark expresses appreciation and respect for the Black women in the WNBA (many of whom she grew up watching and idolizing), suddenly you’re acting like a disappointed parent," Hill wrote.
Gaines quickly clapped back, responding to Hill's post by mocking the idea of "White privilege" in the WNBA.
"'White privilege' in the WNBA is literally hilarious. Maybe you're like Sunny Hostin & think CC also has tall privilege, pretty privilege, and straight privilege," Gaines wrote. "Theres lots of Black players in the WNBA I love [and] respect too, but I don't admire them because they're Black. I admire them for their game. That's the difference."
Gaines then doubled-down by re-sharing Hill's initial post with a screenshot of comments the journalist made in an interview with the Los Angeles Times back in May. In that article, Hill insisted it was "naive" to say Clark's race as a White person and sexuality as a straight woman did not play into her popularity in the WNBA, where the vast majority of players are Black and many are lesbian.
In that article, Hill also insisted that Clark's popularity with those attributes are "problematic."
"Being a long-standing professional race baiter must be SO exhausting," Gaines quipped to Hill in response.
In June, Hill said that the fact that Clark did not make the U.S. Paris Olympic women's basketball team was a "good thing for her" and that her exclusion "wasn't a snub." Hill also criticized the media for pointing out that the WNBA's playoff ratings dropped after Clark's Indiana Fever were eliminated in the first round, calling the headlines "irresponsible."
When Clark made her latest comments about benefiting from White privilege with Time magazine, Hill made a post on X, seemingly mocking the player's fans who disagreed.
"If you’re mad at something so obvious, that means you were never a real fan of hers on the WNBA, you just liked her as long as she could be your avatar to hate on Black and queer women," Hill wrote on Wednesday.
Then, after picking the fight with Gaines on the topic, Hill went so far as to make it personal.
After Gaines' comment about Hill being a professional race-baiter, Hill responded with a message mocking the former swimmer for an incident when she tied with trans athlete Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA women's swimming championships.
"Girl, you need to thank Lia Thomas every day of your life for helping you get famous, otherwise you would have been just a decent college swimmer that no one knew. You wrote the book on grifting — not me," Hill wrote.
Gaines' infamous tie to Thomas in 2022 helped ignite a national conversation about biological males competing as trans athletes against women and girls. Gaines quickly became nationally-known for the incident and has devoted her platform to advocating for the protection of female athletes from trans inclusion in competition and in locker rooms.
Gaines is also leading a lawsuit against the NCAA with other female athletes, accusing the governing body of violating their Title IX rights due to its policies on gender identity. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, details the shock Gaines and other swimmers felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with Thomas at the 2022 championships in Atlanta.
Additionally, Gaines did not let Hill's comment about her past slide on Thursday.
"How deeply regressive [and] utterly misogynistic for Jemele Hill to tell me to thank a man for the platform I have. Thank him for what? Violating us in the locker room? Stealing a national title from a deserving woman? Indirectly stripping us of our 1A rights? Just say you hate women," Gaines wrote in her response.
That was the last message that was sent in the exchange at the time of publication.
It would not be the first time Gaines had the final say in an X debate with a left-leaning opponent.
In a September spat with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Gaines argued the notion that Vice President Kamala Harris has done a "good job" handling the border crisis.
Gaines ended up with the last word in that debate, as Cuban did not respond to Gaines' thread when she brought up that Harris' proposed border bill included funding for Ukraine and Israel and that more than 320,000 migrant children went missing while crossing the border during Harris' handling of the border.
Gaines also got in on a viral roast session of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. on Nov. 14, after it was discovered the congresswoman removed pronouns from her X bio. Gaines made multiple posts shredding Ocasio-Cortez a week after the congresswoman criticized Green Party vice presidential candidate Butch Ware for standing against trans athletes in women's sports.
Gaines took aim at Harris herself after the losing presidential candidate posted a surprise video on social media to her supporters.
"Now do you understand why she didn't go on Joe Rogan lol," Gaines wrote.
Each of Gaines' spats with the liberal figures has been met with roaring engagement from her followers.
StubHub saw wild numbers in WNBA ticket sales, most notably for Clark's Indiana Fever.
According to StubHub, total sales for the 2024 WNBA regular season were up nearly 10 times compared to the 2023 season, with every team seeing an increase in sales.
But no team saw more growth than the Fever, who had 90 times more tickets sold on StubHub this season than in 2023. The team with the second-highest increase was Angel Reese's Chicago Sky, and the Fever's sales were nearly double (93% more).
Several WNBA playoff games without Clark still had fewer viewers than Clark's regular-season games, and the Clark-Reese battles had viewership that hadn't been seen in over two decades.
Clark was named the Rookie of the Year for her historic campaign during which she set the record for the most assists in one season in league history.
Clark carried the Fever to a playoff appearance after a slow start, and she quickly became a double-double machine. She even set a single-game record with 19 assists. She also became the first rookie to record a triple-double, registering two of them.
She received the most votes for the All-Star Game and was just the fifth rookie in league history to make the All-WNBA first-team.
Four-time WNBA champion Sheryl Swoopes has been one of Caitlin Clark’s most outspoken critics.
But Swoopes was left speechless during a recent podcast appearance after being asked about the Indiana Fever star’s remarks about her privilege as a White athlete in an interview with Time magazine after being named Athlete of the Year.
Swoopes, who was the first player ever signed to the WNBA, admitted on the "Gil’s Arena" podcast Wednesday that Clark receiving the honor was "great" for the league, but she questioned the criteria for what went into Time’s selection.
"I don’t think I’m surprised. I’m curious to know who the other candidates were. But the fact that that’s the very first WNBA player to ever win Time magazine Athlete of the Year is pretty special.
"My question is — like the criteria — is it based off her performance on the court, which, yeah, she had a great year. Or is it more about the impact that she had on the game this season.
"I think it's great, not just for her. I think it's great for the league, right? Like everybody talked about the recognition she brought to the W this season, and, so, for her to be Time magazine Athlete of the Year I think it's really great for the league."
But Swoopes had less to say when she was asked what she thought of Clark’s admission to the magazine that she benefited from her privilege.
"I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a White person, there is privilege," Clark said in the interview.
"A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing."
When asked during Wednesday’s podcast about those remarks, Swoopes said nothing.
She appeared to raise an eyebrow and nod before the topic was changed.
Swoopes has faced criticism in the past over her hot takes on Clark. In September, Swoopes said she didn’t think Clark was "dominating" the league. Clark was later named WNBA Rookie of the Year.
WNBA phenom Caitlin Clark said during an interview with Time magazine that Taylor Swift invited her to watch a Kansas City Chiefs game.
The publication named Clark its Athlete of The Year, reporting on her interactions with Swift in recent months. Clark said she met Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in person after attending two shows on the singer's Eras Tour.
"People are just going crazy that I’m there," Clark said. "I thought people would be so in their own world, ready to see Taylor. And it was just completely the opposite."
Swift's invitation to watch a Chiefs game would give Clark the opportunity to watch her favorite team with her favorite musical artist. Clark has previously said Swift is her favorite artist and welcomed Swift to the Chiefs fan base when the singer's relationship with Kelce went public in September 2023.
The invite also came during a year in which Swift has been visibly distant from Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Kelce's teammate, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, compared to last season.
Swift stood or sat alongside Brittany in the same suite for nearly every game last year. However, this year, Swift was only seen with Mahomes twice at games — Oct. 7 against the Saints and Nov. 4 against the Buccaneers.
The duo made headlines at the Chiefs' first game against the Ravens when they sat in separate suites to open the season. The two sat separately after Brittany incited backlash for publicly liking a post by Donald Trump on Instagram. Swift fan groups on social media were partially responsible for circulating screenshots of Brittany's like of Trump's post.
Trump even weighed in on the controversy after Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president Sept. 10. In an interview on "Fox & Friends" the next day, Trump said he liked Brittany "much better" than Swift.
After Trump sent a post on Truth Social that said "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!," many of her fans called on Mahomes to disavow all of her support for Trump.
However, Mahomes never did that. She simply kept going to Chiefs games, sometimes sitting beside Swift and sometimes sitting with someone else, including model Paige Buechele, the wife of Chiefs backup quarterback Shane Buechele, in a game against the Buffalo Bills Nov. 17.
Clark declined to endorse any political candidate before the recent election, but she did like the Instagram post Swift used to endorse Harris. Clark advocated for athletes to encourage fans to vote when asked about the like.
Clark was previously placed next to Swift on the cover of Time magazine's recent Inspiring Women special edition issue that featured eight women in positions of leadership, including multiple athletes.
WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson said Clark being White was a "huge thing" when it came to Clark's popularity. Angel Reese even said there had been "a lot of racism" from Iowa and Indiana Fever fans. Connecticut Sun player DiJonai Carrington, who poked Clark in the eye during a Connecticut playoff win over the Fever, previously criticized Clark for not doing more to call out racism.
In her discussion with Time, Clark seemed to agree with Wilson to an extent.
"I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a White person, there is privilege," Clark told Time. "A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them.
"The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing."
In June, Clark said she was unbothered by people using her name to push narratives.
"It's not something I can control. I don't put too much thought and time into thinking about things like that. To be honest, I don't see a lot of it," Clark said at the time.
"Like I've said, basketball's my job. Everything on the outside, I can't control that. So, I'm not going to spend time thinking about that. People can talk about what they want to talk about, create conversations about whatever it is, but I think, for myself, I'm just here to play basketball. I'm here to have fun. I'm here to help my team win. We've won three games, feel like we've been in a position to win a few more than that. My focus is on helping us do that. I don't pay much mind to all of that, to be honest."
Clark said in September racist fans are "trolls."
"Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism, disrespectful or hurtful comments and threats," she said at the time.
Clark was named the league's Rookie of the Year and helped the league draw historic attendance and viewership.
Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark, who captivated basketball fans long before her arrival in the WNBA, was named Time’s Athlete of the Year on Tuesday following her historic rookie season.
Clark, 22, capped off a phenomenal rookie season packed with record-breaking performances and crowds with a playoff appearance – the first for Indiana since 2016 – and was named WNBA Rookie of the Year.
When asked by Time magazine how she would summarize this past year, Clark responded with one word: historic.
"I've been able to captivate so many people that have never watched women's sports, let alone women's basketball, and turn them into fans," she told the magazine.
Clark said the noise surrounding the league this past year felt "powerful."
"Instantly, everybody goes crazy," she continued. "People are invested in the game, they love the game, and that's what makes it so fun for me. These people aren't supporting women's sports to check a box. It’s going to be the new normal."
While women’s college basketball fans already recognized her, Clark became a household name during the 2023 March Madness tournament by leading Iowa to its first national championship game in program history for the women’s team. A rivalry between LSU’s Angel Reese, which would carry on into their professional careers, was born.
Iowa would fall to LSU, but Clark and the Hawkeyes would run it back the following year.
In her senior year, Clark would earn more honors, including eclipsing Pete Maravich as the NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader. She was drafted first overall by the Indiana Fever just a month later and her dominance continued.
Clark wrapped up her rookie season with more records in games played before sold out crowds (some at NBA arenas) and she would be crowned Rookie of the Year after being named an All-Star and just the fifth rookie in league history to make the All-WNBA First-Team.
But her success came amid controversy. Narratives around race, a divide between the old guard and the new, and even an Olympic snub surrounded Clark.
"I tell people I feel like the most controversial person," Clark told Time. "But I am not. It’s just because of all the storylines that surround me. I literally try to live and treat everybody in the same exact respectful, kind way. It just confuses me at times."
Clark has had an undeniable impact on the landscape of not just the WNBA, but women’s sports in general. The growth of the league and the focus on women’s sports is only the beginning.
"Personally, I'm just scratching the surface of what I can do and hopefully how I can change the world and impact people," she told Time magazine.
