IN PRADA, CAITLIN CLARK REALIZES THE WNBA WANTS A PIECE OF HER
A new league features “grown women” who will make her rookie life tough, says Diana Taurasi, but in her New York debut, Clark shined with designer wear and a prime performance on ‘Saturday Night Live'
The WNBA’s logo defenders, paid to protect a painted stripe at 22 feet and 1.75 inches, heard an annoying word Monday. “Prada,” Caitlin Clark said at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, explaining her white satin shirt and skirt with an embroidered rhinestone top, leather slingback pumps, a black handbag and acetate sunglasses.
Her midriff also was exposed, which thrilled her boyfriend at the scene, Connor McCaffery. “I don’t think Prada has ever fitted an NBA or WNBA player before, so kinda sleek, kinda special,” she said.
The most magnetic female athlete of her time — Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky never drew an 18.9 rating, nor did Serena Williams and other tennis legends, only a 2015 soccer team that had years of hype help — already is being eyed by veterans of the league she’s joining. She was drafted by the Indiana Fever with the No. 1 pick and decided to dress the part, as would any freewheeling performer. But Clark, a product of powerhouse media and fans who enjoy her bombs-away shooting prowess, is about to face more physicality and strangling guardians than she ever imagined. Remember her problems against Connecticut’s Nika Muhl, who all but put her in a steel cage? Remember South Carolina, which forced her to move inside and miss a decisive 10 two-pointers in the championship game?
What do you think the planet’s best women players are thinking about Caitlin Clark as her rookie year nears? Prada might be a watchword for those who know “reality is coming,” as an all-time great has noted.
“You look superhuman playing against some 18-year-olds, but you’re going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time,” said Diana Taurasi, nodding her head. “There’s a period of grace that you have to give rookies when they get to the league. We’ve had some of the greats to ever play basketball, and it takes two or three years to get used to a different game (against) the best players in the world. As long as everyone has expectations that are realistic, they should be fine.”
The expectations for Clark, of course, are what they were at Iowa. She’ll keep draining logo three-pointers, find teammates with perfect passes and score 30 to 35 points a game. With an Indiana team that hasn’t made the playoffs in eight years, she can’t wait to join forces with Aliyah Boston, who creates massive possibilities down low. “Obviously, I’m going to an organization that has, in my eyes, one of the best post players in the entire world," Clark said. “My point guard eyes just light up at that. I'm excited. My biggest job is I'm just feeding Aliyah the ball every single day. I'm going to be in there and be like, go make a layup. She's going to make my life easy." She also awaits another gunner, Kelsey Mitchell, the league’s top three-point shooter.
But the prime mainstays — such as New York’s Breanna Stewart, who has said Clark was not the best college player ever — view her with tension and grime. They know she made more than $3 million in money via the NIL formula of names, images and likenesses. They’ve seen her State Farm commercials and know she has her own cereal brand. Over the weekend, she poked fun at Michael Che on “Saturday Night Live,” who said her No. 22 uniform will be “replaced with an apron.” In response, she told the comedian to “One: Be. Two: Funnier. Three: Dumb—.” The crowd greeted her with a 20-second standing ovation. She met host Ryan Gosling and gushed, “You kinda start freaking out a little bit. He’s just amazing.”
The players heard her say, “If you would have told me that we would be playing in front of millions of people on national television, I’d say that was insane. I still can’t wrap my head around it. Everybody that came before us to have this moment. Where it’s going to continue to grow, the young stars in our game are really good. The WNBA is really good. The talent level across the board has helped this.”
And they heard her say, “I dreamed of this moment since I was in second grade. I think, obviously, the course of the last few weeks has been pretty insane in my life, the last two months playing basketball as long as I possibly could in my college career. I think the biggest thing is, I’m just very lucky to be in this moment, and all these opportunities and these things, they’re once in a lifetime.”
Without a pause, Clark said, “I earned it. That’s why I’m so proud of it.”
Now, rivals want her to suffer with pride. Sure, she is elevating the financial outlook of a league that wants at least $150 million annually in its next TV deal. The Fever are making her bigger in Indianapolis than Peyton Manning. Throughout the league, teams are moving to larger arenas for her games while commissioner Cathy Engelbert wants as many as 16 franchises. When the season starts next month, Clark tickets will be hard to find, while national TV and streaming networks will air 36 of the Fever’s 40 games. The gamblers have located her, too. Will anyone care about the Major League Baseball season? “Sold out, wait list and record-breaking — we’re hearing that now,” Engelbert said.
She is bigger than the WNBA. Do the haters realize it? “There’s no comparison that I can find on the women’s side, and I’ve been in this league since the very beginning,” Rebecca Lobo said. “We haven’t seen a player drive ticket sales like this. We haven’t seen a player drive ratings like this. Look at the ratings the last four or five games she played. I’ve never seen anything to this degree, and to me, what’s special is that she’s staying in the Midwest and going to Indiana. It’s such a perfect fit.”
Yet Stewart, who won four national titles at UConn, wonders why Clark didn’t win a championship. Other players think Clark isn’t worthy of making the U.S. Olympic team, which has won seven consecutive gold medals. Others want her to succeed in the pros before earning greatness. Let them complain. Let them cry.
Enough. Her flair has been soaring for years and won’t stop because of professional jealousy. Yes, she must score in bundles and make logo shots. Yes, she must win and reach the playoffs, with the ultimate ambition of a title. Allow her to give it a try. “Her game is going to translate,” said Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon, who worked in the NBA on Gregg Popovich’s bench. “You can see her work ethic, her professionalism already, in how she approaches her craft.”
And Taurasi’s shots? “Diana is not retired. So she has the right to say, ‘Hey, that's my spot. That's my position. And you're about to come in, so listen,’ ’’ Lisa Leslie told ESPN. "If it was me and I switched out on her, hell, I'm trying to block her shot every time. That's how we're made.” But Leslie also thinks Clark belongs with the Olympians in Paris, saying, “We should not leave the country without her. She's a bona fide baller. There's no doubt she's already one of the best players in the world.”
On the first night of her new life, Prada and all, she was asked about her favorite Taylor Swift song. Caitlin Clark stopped and thought. “I’ll say ‘Enchanted,’ ’’ she said. “Wait, that’s kind of sad, isn’t it. We’ll make it good.”
She’s still dreaming. “That's definitely our goal, to get back to the championship habits. It’s so cool for me,” Clark said. “You see it today. I think they had (thousands) of tickets claimed to just watch the draft. I think it shows the excitement in Indianapolis. It's a great basketball city. For myself, I can't imagine a more perfect fit, a better place for me to start my professional career, an organization that really just believes in women's basketball and wants to do everything the right way.”
Her first game is four weeks from tonight, in Connecticut, which makes sense. Her next two games are against Breanna Stewart. The second one is on ABC.
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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.