It took a short while for her to get going, however the WNBA is beginning to formally turn into the Caitlin Clark Present.
On Friday night time, Clark’s Indiana Fever defeated the Atlanta Dream 91-79 in entrance of a bought out State Farm Area. They stuffed over 17,500 seats for this recreation in a stadium that normally hosts the Atlanta Hawks. Clark impressed the large crowd, scoring 16 factors and 7 assists.
Clark’s seven assists have been good for one more WNBA document in her younger profession. She grew to become the third quickest participant since Sue Chicken to achieve 100 assists. She’s the quickest participant in WNBA historical past to attain 250 factors and 100 assists.
Regardless of a number of video games of struggles in her rookie season, it certain as hell looks like Clark’s recreation is translating in a means that the haters stated that it wouldn’t. And it’s translating in entrance of bought out, record-breaking crowds.
The early studying curve coupled with a lot consideration on WNBA drama associated to Clark together with onerous fouls, Olympic snubs, and jealous opponents has not slowed her down. As a substitute, it seemingly solely fueled her fireplace.
Whereas there’s a plethora of haters and naysayers on-line, these bought out crowds are plain. Different WNBA rookies like Angel Reese have been spectacular, and so they deserve a bit little bit of credit score for the success of this season, too. However no person’s producing this form of buzz.
The WNBA has by no means seen something like this. As a substitute of taking part in of their typical gymnasium at School Park, the Dream actually needed to transfer this recreation to an NBA facility to maintain up with the demand. As you’d anticipate, it was a franchise attendance document that had nothing to do with the house workforce.
The financial impression on cities that welcome Clark is starting to be felt, too. Extra persons are flooding these cities and downtown areas to observe her play.
After taking part in simply 17 WNBA video games, Clark is No. 2 in All-Star fan voting. Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson is the deserved chief with almost 18,000 votes. However Clark’s reputation can’t be denied, as she’s already accrued over 216,000 votes, greater than stars like Brianna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu.
The Fever are nonetheless simply 7-10, three video games behind .500. It seems at the very least statistically that Clark has already turned the nook in her rookie season. However there’s nonetheless work to be carried out. And you’ll be assured that Clark will one way or the other work out a solution to flip her workforce right into a winner.