Clark Impact Being Felt

There was little doubt that Caitlin Clark was going to have an impact on the WNBA. There's a lot more eyes on the sport then there have been in its 28 year history. There have been some big names and great players that have played the game. Becky Hammond, Sheryl Swoopes, Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper just to name a few. All great players in their own right. But none have had the impact, or hype, coming into the league that Clark has.

For as good as Clark has been, not all the attention has been positive.

Don't worry we will touch on the positives. But, as you can figure, there we're going to be some comments made about it. One was from Pat McAfee. He made one slip comment about Clark, which was made during a positive rant about what she's done for the game. He did promptly apologize for the comment after it was made. He got taken to the woodshed slightly for it, but it was quickly remedied between him and Clark, as it should have been. yes it was a boneheaded comment, but McAfee took ownership of it.

Then there's Jemele Hill. She took to the internet to do what she does best. Take a big story and somehow manage to turn it racial. Hill, at one point when the WNBA season started, tried to put the spin on it that Clark was popular because she was white and using her sexuality (I'm paraphrasing here). But that's what Jemele Hill does, she uses racial issues in stories when there isn't one. Hill, to her credit, did eventually go on to back Clark and what she's done for the women's basketball game.

So that's just some of the negative stuff that's whirled around the start of Caitlin Clark's pro career. i give her credit where its due. At 22 years old, she's handling this will grace and professionalism beyond her years. A lot of that started to show through when she became a big name in the game playing at Iowa. Clark is quick to realize, 11 games as of this writing into her WNBA career, that the pro game is different than in college.

Clark has been good at what she does and has drawn eyes onto the sport.. It's not only getting eyes on her, but its getting eyes on the league and the greater game as a whole. She isn't quite at the same skill level, but Clark has the marketability and drawing power of what guys like Michael Jordan and LeBron James have done with the NBA.