In honour of Women’s History Month this March, I am writing about one of the most influential athletes to walk on God’s earth. She, in my opinion, is a top three most- influential female athlete right now, and the most influential WNBA basketball star of all time — and it’s not even close.
My fellow Lions, I am talking about none other than Caitlin Clark, the lady who can shoot a ball from Mars and land it in the Mariana Trench. Yes, that’s how deep her shooting range is!
Caitlin Clark is in my top five most influential basketball players. She’s the only woman on that list — a list that includes Stephen Curry, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. I am sure you are wondering where Kobe or LeBron are. Well, for me, Clark is more influential. I believe she has done more for the WNBA than they have for the NBA.
It is not far-fetched to say Clark has single-handedly saved the WNBA. At one point, the league was not making much profit and was losing revenue — it just wasn’t very popular. People did not tune into the games the same way they did for the NBA or even college games, and there were not many nationally televised games.
But ever since Clark got drafted in 2024, things changed. According to the Los Angeles Times, Clark was responsible for 26.5 per cent of the WNBA’s economic activity for the 2024 season, including attendance, merch sales, and television viewership. Reportedly, “one of every six tickets sold at a WNBA arena can be attributed to Clark.”
WNBA TV viewership is up 300 per cent due to Clark, and 45 per cent of “total broadcast value came from Fever games.” WNBA merchandise sales increased by up to 500 per cent, Clark being the most significant factor. Moreover, “Clark’s regular-season games were watched by 1.2 million viewers on average,” which is triple the amount of games she was absent from. If that’s not influence, I don’t know what is. With those kinds of numbers, she can sit at the same table as Bruce Lee and Beyoncé.
Despite all that Clark has done for the game, some players and executives still hate on her. It could be out of jealousy that one lady is getting all the attention while the others are not. Some commentators have even attributed Clark’s success to “pretty privilege and white privilege,” which is an unreasonable claim to make. No one watches basketball to admire people’s beauty — if you do that, you need a smack on your head. Her success is just pure hoops with a sprinkle of aura. Even when Clark was named Time Magazine’s Athlete of the Year, one GM said it shouldn’t have been Clark, but the whole WNBA, which is outrageous. The truth of the matter is that many people in the league can’t stand the fact that a straight, white lady — a minority in the WNBA — is the face of the league.
Despite all the hate, Clark is still cooking defenders and playing elite hoops as she aims to guide the Indiana Fever to their first WNB — a title I can see happening in the next two years. I am inspired by her because she teaches me that when you fly high, not everyone will be rooting for you to succeed.
There will always be that one person or group looking to bring you back down to the ground. Someone will always look for a stain on your white gown, so just block out the noise and do what makes you happy.
