The extremely anticipated 2024 WNBA draft (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) is lastly right here. Like many followers, gamers will anxiously await to listen to their identify known as on Monday night time on the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.
There isn’t any query in regards to the No. 1 choose in Monday’s WNBA draft as Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark is definite to go to the Indiana Fever.
However after that, the thriller begins. And what the Los Angeles Sparks do with the Nos. 2 and 4 picks might form the remainder of the draft.
In 2023, the league broke information in ticket gross sales with back-to-back WNBA champions, the Las Vegas Aces, reporting sold-out video games all through the season and viewership with the WNBA reporting over 36 million complete distinctive viewers throughout all nationwide networks throughout the common season.
The ladies’s NCAA championship sport earlier this month outdrew the lads’s with a median of 18.9 million viewers, in line with ESPN.
With a few of ladies’s faculty basketball gamers being newcomers, the league is anticipating greater turnouts than ever earlier than. Listed below are six gamers to look at forward of the WNBA draft.
1. Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Clark is understood for her jaw-dropping 3-pointers and record-breaking scoring. The College of Iowa star declared for the WNBA draft in February in a social media put up. Clark, 22, is projected to be the No. 1 total choose by the Indiana Fever, in line with ESPN. I
owa introduced it is going to be retiring Clark’s jersey, No. 22, later this season. The Fever can be reporting elevated ticket gross sales and the league will broadcast 36 of their 40 video games this season.
2. Cameron Brink
Hailing from Beaverton, Oregon, and standing at 6-foot-4, Cameron Brink is a drive to be reckoned with within the put up. Brink grew to become the primary ladies’s basketball participant to signal an NIL cope with New Steadiness in 2023. Brink broke this system file for profession blocks as a junior and received an NCAA championship with Stanford in 2021 beneath Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach of all time who additionally introduced her retirement after this season.
The 22-year-old is anticipated to be the No. 2 total choose on this 12 months’s draft with the Los Angeles Sparks, in line with ESPN.
3. Kamilla Cardoso
At simply 15 years outdated, Kamilla Cardoso left her dwelling in Montes Claros, Brazil, and moved to the U.S. alone. Her objective was to play basketball in faculty and attain the WNBA. The 6-foot-7 star started her basketball profession at Syracuse and later transferred to South Carolina, the place she received two NCAA nationwide championships. After a masterful efficiency within the NCAA Match, the 22-year-old was awarded probably the most excellent participant on this 12 months’s championship sport.
Cardoso is anticipated to be the No. 3 total draft choose for the Chicago Sky, in line with ESPN. She shall be featured in a documentary alongside Clark coming this Might.
4. Rickea Jackson
Although you do not hear the identify typically, 23-year-old Rickea Jackon’s calm and poised demeanor on the court docket shouldn’t go unnoticed. Hailing from Detroit, Jackson was a finalist for the Cheryl Miller Award as Division I’s finest small ahead whereas enjoying for Tennessee, in line with the WNBA, and is the fourth-leading scorer in Girl Vol’s program historical past.
The 6-foot-2 ahead has identify, picture and likeness offers with Burt’s Bees and Bojangles. She is projected to be the No. 4 total choose for the Los Angeles Sparks. in line with ESPN.
5. Aaliyah Edwards
Enjoying beneath UConn head coach Geno Auriemma is not any simple activity. The 6-foot-4 ahead from Kingston, Ontario, helped UConn to 3 NCAA Remaining 4 appearances. Edwards was the youngest member of the Canadian ladies’s nationwide group on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, in line with the WNBA.
Edwards signed an NIL cope with adidas Canada, changing into the primary NIL athlete of the worldwide sports activities model’s Canadian division, in line with the WNBA. She is projected to be chosen No. 5 to the Dallas Wings, in line with ESPN.
6. Angel Reese
The Baltimore native turned “Bayou Barbie” grew to become a sensation following Louisiana State College’s victory over Iowa within the 2023 NCAA ladies’s basketball championship. Angel Reese, the 2024 SEC participant of the 12 months, made her WNBA draft announcement in fashion — with a characteristic in Vogue journal. With almost 3 million followers and large NIL offers, the 6-foot-3 ahead has captivated the world on the intersection of sports activities and trend. She is projected to be chosen No. 8 by the Chicago Sky, in line with ESPN.
The WNBA draft will start at 7:30 p.m. ET and will be streamed on ESPN.
ESPN contributed to this report.
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