Rebecca Lobo has been a part of the WNBA from the day it launched, first as a player and later as an analyst.
She’s seen elite talents who were dominant college basketball figures enter the league with varying degrees of hype.
But Lobo can never remember anyone quite like Caitlin Clark, not someone who became such an individual entity who fans flocked to follow.
“There’s no comparison that I can find on the women’s side, and I’ve been in this league since the very beginning,” the ESPN analyst and former Liberty star said ahead of Monday’s WNBA draft. “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. It’s something she had been doing all season long.
“[I’ve] never seen anything to this degree, and to me one of the things that’s kind of special about it is that she’s staying in the Midwest; going to Indiana. It’s such a perfect fit in terms of that.”
Clark led Iowa to back-to-back national championship games.
She became the all-time leading scorer in Division I history this past season, breaking “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s 54-year-old record.
Iowa games became must-see events because of the sharpshooting playmaker with limitless range who helped grow the sport and bring in new fans.
The women’s title game outdrew the men’s this year, drawing a record 18.9 million viewers for South Carolina’s victory over Iowa.
Two nights before Clark was projected to be drafted No. 1 by the Indiana Fever at Brooklyn Academy of Music — the first time the draft will have spectators — she made a guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live” during the “Weekend Update” segment with Michael Che and Colin Jost.
Clark mocked Che for some of his recent jokes mocking women’s sports, and paid homage to past great women’s basketball players.
“I’m sure it will be a big first step for me, but it’s just one step for the WNBA thanks to all the great players like Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper, the great Dawn Staley, and my basketball hero, Maya Moore,” Clark said during the show. “These are the women that kicked down the door so I could walk inside. So, I want to thank them tonight for laying the foundation.”
This was definitely a first.
As Lobo said, Clark is unique, in terms of popularity, the pressure she deals with and her immense talent.
From Iowa drawing more than 55,000 fans for a preseason game at an outdoor football stadium through a memorable season in which Clark averaged 31.6 points, 8.9 assists and 7.4 rebounds, the bull’s-eye never left her back.
Staley, the South Carolina coach, publicly thanked Clark during the championship ceremony for all she had done for the sport.
“I know her shoulders are heavy because of what she has to give to women’s basketball,” Staley said. “We’re thankful for the way she’s handled all of it. Her next step is the WNBA — I do think she can be that person that elevates us.”
There will be incredible pressure on her from the outset, just like there was this past season at Iowa.
A hint of that came during the Final Four, when Phoenix Mercury legend Diana Taurasi said “reality was coming” for Clark and other fellow college stars.
Other players will almost certainly look to welcome her to the WNBA in their own way, too, to knock the hot-shot rookie with the incredible hype down a peg.
“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,” Taurasi said. “Not saying that it’s not going to translate, because when you’re great at what you do, you’re just going to get better. But there is going to be a transition period when you’re going to have to give yourself some grace as a rookie, and it might take a little bit longer for some people.”
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