Inside Caitlin Clark’s coronation: The WNBA’s top pick has Indiana basketball fans in a fever as the league looks to capitalize on her historic NCAA career…and shed of her “little sister” label

Maybe it was her white Prada blazer, matching miniskirt or diamond cufflinks, but Caitlin Clark looked almost unrecognizable at Monday’s WNBA draft in Brooklyn — a considerable accomplishment for one of America’s most successful athletes. famous in America.

Before becoming the Indiana Fever’s obvious first choice, Clark spent the last month guiding Iowa to its second straight NCAA championship game while amassing the largest television audiences in tournament history. In recent days, she’s appeared on Saturday Night Live and NBC’s Today Show, not to mention countless publications, websites, and the lips and ears of sports fans across the country.

Interest in this year’s WNBA draft was so high that the league opened it to fans for the first time since 2016 thanks to Clark, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer. And back in Indianapolis, the Fever reported more than 17,000 attendees at its WNBA Draft watch party. Clark won’t make her WNBA regular season debut until May 14, but ticket prices on the secondary market have already climbed above $500. Meanwhile, the defending champion Las Vegas Aces plan to open 7,000 more seats when the Fever come to town on May 25.

Clark is used to attracting attention on the basketball court, where her confidence ranks alongside that of Michael Jordan or LeBron James. But it’s the other aspect of the job that she’s still learning to tolerate. When her post-draft press conference ended after weeks of grueling interviews, Clark quietly turned to a publicist and asked, “How many things do I have to do?”

With his Iowa graduation just weeks away, the visibly tired 22-year-old only referred to possible media obligations for the rest of the evening. But thanks to her preternatural shooting ability and what she considers “overlooked” passing skills, Clark is now a must-see on television. Simply put, the media’s demands on Caitlin Clark are only just beginning.

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, left, poses for a photo with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert

Caitlin Clark signs autographs for fans during the 2024 WNBA Draft on April 15

From left, LSU’s Angel Reese, Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark and Stanford’s Cameron Brink pose

“I think obviously the last few weeks have been pretty crazy in my life,” she said Monday, trying to remember all the cities and places she passed through on her way to a second championship appearance. of the NCAA.

“The last two months I played basketball as long as I could in my college career and then went home for a few days,” she continued. “I got off the plane when we landed in Iowa City, went straight home, had my mom make me a meal, and then went back to Iowa City the next day.

“Then I flew to Los Angeles, then to New York and now I’m here, sitting at this point.”

Clark was likely talking about the literal stage she sat on in the draft media room or offering a figurative reference to the professional ranks she’s now joining.

But in a broader sense, “this step” quickly becomes Clark’s task to define at a very opportune moment.

The WNBA has seen a slight increase in attendance and television audiences for several years, but the league has never rivaled its big brother, the NBA.

Women’s college hoops is a different story.

Iowa’s loss in the title game to second overall pick Kamilla Cardoso and the South Carolina Gamecocks averaged 18.7 million viewers, about four million more than the men’s championship . Certainly, the men’s match was broadcast on cable and not on national television, like the women’s. But Clark, LSU’s Angel Reese and a growing number of women’s players have actually become more recognizable than men’s players in the NCAA in 2023-24.

And if there was any doubt about their popularity, Monday evening in Brooklyn put an end to it.

Caitlin Clark celebrates with her father after being drafted first overall by Indiana on Monday

Central Iowa’s Caitlin Clark speaks with UConn head coach Geno Auriemma on Monday.

The scene was reminiscent of the 2023 NBA Draft 10 months earlier, when the San Antonio Spurs selected 7-foot-4 super-prospect Victor Wembanyama amid a sea of ​​wild fanfare.

Like Clark, Wembanyama was an obvious choice to go first, giving the project the feel of a scripted crowning achievement. And what’s more, countless young fans were looking for an autograph from the presumptive first pick, as had been the case in June 2023, when the young Frenchman was welcomed into the league.

“Everyone was scrambling, and she handled it like a champ and made sure everyone had their moment with her,” Reese Gittleman, a 17-year-old from Philadelphia, told DailyMail.com after obtaining Clark’s signature.

“She was really, really nice,” added Melina Day, 16, a friend of Gittleman’s.

The difference between Clark and Wembanyama’s respective draft nights was the setting.

Both were selected from Brooklyn, a basketball-loving neighborhood filled with knowledgeable and enthusiastic fans. But while the NBA draft took place at the Barclays Center, a full-size NBA arena, Monday’s WNBA draft took place around the corner, in the cramped 3,000-seat Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark gives autographs before the WNBA basketball draft

This room, a large music hall opened for the first time in 1861, was cramped on Monday.

Fans had a hard time seeing Clark and the rest of their favorite players. Aging elevators took reporters to a crowded press room in the building’s attic, where players held their first news conferences as professionals beneath a movie poster from a recent Robert Redford film festival.

There was a similar vibe to the Elite 8 in Albany a few weeks earlier, when Clark and Iowa beat Reese’s LSU in a rematch of the 2023 NCAA finals. The game drew 12, 3 million viewers and easily sold out Albany’s MVP Arena.

This event and Monday’s draft seemed bigger than their respective venues, and that’s what makes Clark such a game changer. She’s not just attracting fans to women’s hoops, she’s changing the math to women’s basketball and the WNBA is well aware of the opportunity before it.

The league already plans to add a new team in 2025, but with Clark’s arrival, more discussions about expansion are underway, not to mention a new media deal that could eclipse the current contract.

“This is an important year for us in terms of audience, attendance, all the qualitative and quantitative factors that go into the valuation of media rights,” Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said on Monday.

“The one thing I know about sports is that you need household names, rivalries and big games,” she continued, referring to the women’s NCAA tournament. “Those are the three things we’ve had over the last two weeks.”

And with Clark on board, those are the kinds of possibilities for the future of the WNBA.

“It’s not something that everyone can do,” Clark said Monday. “It’s once in a lifetime.”