CAITLIN CLARK LOOKS TO TORCH THE WNBA WHEN OTHER STARS HAVEN’T MANAGED

There’s no reason to stay at Iowa when she’s breaking Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring record, turning her gaze to a career with the Indiana Fever and a bunch of millions — like me — who cannot wait

     Annoyance? Rage? Please don’t suffer any rising wrath. If the best WNBA players to date are Diana Taurasi, Lisa Leslie, Breanna Stewart, Elena Delle Donne, Lauren Jackson, Maya Moore, Tamika Catchings, Sheryl Swoopes and Sue Bird, I haven’t had the privilege of seeing any in person. Call me an NBA bruiser, a lackey, a LeBron vs. Michael weenie. Even when the Olympics have beckoned, I won’t attend because the U.S. women’s team romps.

     But Caitlin Clark? I will be there, in Indianapolis and elsewhere, because she has surpassed the perceptional pedigree of why I’d attend games. She shoots three-point bombs with the assurance of Steph Curry. She bounces no-look dimes with the guile of Tyrese Haliburton. She possesses a force field on a basketball court that demands our frequent attention, like Nikola Jokic or Jayson Tatum. She is female.

     I don’t care.

     Other than win a national championship at Iowa, which probably won’t happen in April, nothing is left for her to achieve on the current level. She has scored 3,650 points and will pass Pete Maravich, with 17 points Sunday, as the all-time leading scorer in college basketball. She used to watch him on social media. “People always told me to watch ‘Pistol Pete,’ ” Clark said. “I’d YouTube him a lot. That’s probably the only guy I really YouTube’d. I wasn’t a huge YouTube-watching person.”

     At her next truckload of life mirages, with the Indiana Fever, she’ll be asked to transform a secondary league into an American passion. Suddenly, ESPN will feature her regularly on sportscasts. Suddenly, we’ll see if she can approach 60 points and set astounding records for triple-doubles. Suddenly, Curry will be demanding her and Sabrina Ionescu join him and Damian Lillard at an All-Star Game shooting contest. Clark is about to lift the WNBA into a new realm of attention. Passing Maravich, after passing Lynette Woodard, finishes her magnificent collegiate impact.

     So let’s see if she can lift the professional game with TV ratings she produced on ABC and even Peacock. Her last appearance in the NCAA tournament was seen by throngs, with 10 million watching Iowa’s loss to LSU in last year’s finals. The WNBA has been a lull for decades. Can Clark throw home a three and make it a happening? Won’t we follow the league and gauge how she thrives?

     “This season is far from over and we have a lot more goals to achieve,” she said. “It is impossible to fully express my gratitude to everyone who has supported me during my time at Iowa — my teammates, who made the last four years the best; my coaches, trainers and staff who always let me be me. Hawkeye fans who filled (the arena) every night, and everyone who came out to support us across the country, especially the young kids. Most importantly, none of this would have been possible without my family and friends who have been by my side through it all. Because of all of you, my dreams came true.”

     Will the Fever average $555 for a ticket, between the current $408 to $5,199 this Sunday, making games the priciest women’s sports event ever? They will not, at the beginning. But Clark’s entrance to the perfect city becomes a massive marketing and awareness proposition for the WNBA. She is white, from the Midwest, and she’ll face some resentment for the attention-grabbing. She’ll face racial outbursts and deal with sexuality issues, including her dating relationship with Connor McCaffery, an assistant coach with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. When Swoopes erred and said Clark was in her fifth year with the Hawkeyes, McCaffery tweeted, “Just imagine doing an interview and being this misinformed. I don’t even understand what she’s trying to say.” When Barack Obama congratulated Clark, he wrote “MR PRESIDENT” with crying emojis.

     Yeah, so what the hell? She’s living her life and occupying us all. Already, Clark has absorbed ESPN’s Jay Williams, who balks that she’s the greatest women’s player ever. “I hear people talking about GOATS. For me, I'm like, ‘OK, you wanna be a GOAT. Fine. There's a level of greatness.’ You gotta win championships to be GOATs,” he wrote on social media. “That's how we measure greatness overall.”

     Said his ESPN colleague, Dick Vitale: “Recently there has been debate about being the GOAT as it relates to @CaitlinClark22. Look I RESPECT the views of others but I do not think it is FAIR to eliminate someone that doesn’t win a championship. Championships r won by strong talented TEAMS. I always felt WILT (Chamberlain) & many others don’t get a fair shake. He didn’t play with a (Hall of Fame) roster a la the Boston Celtics.”

     All we know is, Caitlin Clark will flourish on the next level. Her prominence only continues. We cannot wait for her first game with Aliyah Boston. As she said for a recent interview, “Well, the Indiana Fever could have the first pick, so people may, may or not, maybe will, have the duo. I don’t know?” Last season, the WNBA reached more than 36 million viewers on TV. She might bring that amount in her fourth or fifth attempt. “It’s great for women’s basketball. It’s going to be great for the WNBA when she comes in. Her game is going to translate,” said Becky Hammon, coach of the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces. “She’s special. She’s generational.”

     She hooked me. Wrote the Fever to fans on Thursday night: “We’re just simply reminding you that there are only 46 days until the 2024 WNBA Draft.” Gainbridge Fieldhouse seats 18,000. I’ll be there Opening Night, paying plenty, the first of many full houses across America the Beautiful.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.