Superstar’s celebrity will either push the WNBA past long-standing barriers or lay them bare.
On the eve before Caitlin Clark achieved her latest record, a $28-million signature sneaker deal with Nike, the professional basketball union she is about to become part of releasedIt was a reminder from the WNBPA that, to twist a phrase from the now bad-and-boujee Tony Kornheiser , we’ve entered a golden era forwoman basketball player, but not for women’s professional basketball. Or women’s college basketball, for that matter.
Of course, unless you’ve been living the past year on Bouvet Island, you know the myriad reasons for the phenomenon that is Clark. She injected basketball’s most-recent revolution of the really deep three-point shot into the women’s game. Her signature shot is called the Logo 3, because she often shoots from the border of any half-court floor artwork.
And with victory assured in the 2023 title game, Reese turned to Clark and gestured she was winning a championship ring and Clark was not. Clark was venerated for not responding; Reese was villainized. And the perception wasn’t altered even after internet sleuths found Clark appearing to have made a similar gesture to an earlier opponent.
It is an elite group even within the NBA, where of the less than 600 players who suit up each season, only about 25 have such rich deals. Their names are household, and mostly mononymous. LeBron. KD. Giannis. Steph. Trae. And they all trace their legacy to, of course, Jordan, who remains the most supreme even if he wasn’t the first.
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