Caitlin Clark’s rookie season in the WNBA with the Indiana Fever is over. And it was a roller-coaster ride both on the court and in the media.
The Fever began the campaign with a disastrous 1-8 record in May. However, as Clark found her footing and developed more chemistry with her teammates, the season turned around. Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, and Aliyah Boston formed a formidable Big 3 and the Fever ended up making the playoffs. Although she’s more well-known for her 3-point shooting, Clark ended up with a league record in assists and was the unanimous Rookie of the Year.
And then there’s her impact on WNBA viewership.
The league’s ratings went to the moon with dozens of games drawing more than a million fans and one record being set after another. The starpower of Clark and her fellow rookies like Angel Reese and Cameron Brink along with the overall women’s sports boom saw WNBA viewership climb to new new heights. And fittingly enough, Clark’s season ended with yet another record.
A total of 2.5 million viewers tuned in for Game 2 of the opening round series between the Fever and Connecticut Sun Wednesday night on ESPN. The Sun won a close game that went down to the wire as they swept Indiana in the Best-of-3 series. It was the most-watched WNBA game ever on cable television. It surpassed the 2.3 million viewers that watched Clark’s WNBA debut in May which also came against the Sun.
While those are all incredible positives, Clark’s rookie year was also marred by controversy in the media as bad actors clung to divisive narratives and hateful rhetoric that reared its ugly head again on Wednesday night. Through no fault of her own, Clark became a sword and shield in culture wars and a sports debate pinata. FS1’s Nick Wright called out the elephant in the room, going as far as to say that racist “fans” attached themselves to Clark and ruined the experience for everyone.
Now that Caitlin Clark’s season is over, the WNBA can celebrate the one-of-a-kind impact that she had on the league’s growth. But it will also have to face the reality that the league is also squarely in the middle of cultural divisions that currently plague the country. Hopefully the viewers keep showing up throughout the rest of the playoffs and next season and the hate gets left behind.
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