Caitlin Clark had just lost the final college game of her career. But there was little sign of disappointment or even bitterness in the 22-year-old. Instead, she looked ahead with confidence.
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“When I think about the future of women’s basketball, it’s obviously going to continue to grow, whether it’s at the WNBA level or at the collegiate level. Everyone sees it. Everybody knows it,” Clark said after her Iowa Hawkeyes’ 75-87 loss to South Carolina in the college championship final.
This optimism is no coincidence, it is actually justified, and it has primarily to do with herself.
Clark attracts over 20 million TV viewers
Because it is mainly thanks to Clark that women’s basketball is currently experiencing a boom in the USA that has rarely been seen before.
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The final of the NCAA Tournament, better known as March Madness, attracted an average of 18.7 million viewers in the United States. At its peak, 24 million watched.
It is the most watched basketball game in the USA since 2019. Not even the NBA, the big glamor league of male superstars, has come close to these values in the past five years.
Few sports broadcasts are more popular
According to NBC, only American football, the World Cup and the Olympics attracted a larger audience when it came to sports broadcasts during this period.
A women’s college basketball game hasn’t had higher ratings than the Hawkeyes’ game against the Gamecocks since 1992.
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Of course, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was also aware that this popularity had less to do with the winners who remained undefeated until the end of the season than with Clark’s phenomenal performance.
“I would like to personally thank Caitlin Clark for taking our sport to new levels,” Staley said.
LeBron James attacks Clark haters
One of their most prominent fans was LeBron James, who came out during the final. “If you don’t freak out at Caitlin Clark’s game, you can only be a total hater. Stay away from people like that, please!”, the Los Angeles Lakers megastar asked his followers on X.
At this point, Clark had already scored 18 points in the first quarter and had 30 points at the end of the game.
Caitlin Clark is the center of attention in the USA
Anyway, the statistics. The 6-foot-11 builder scored 3,951 points in the NCAA – more than any other woman who has ever played college basketball. There are also 1,144 assists. The student also broke the record for three-point shots made in the final tournament this season.
She was celebrated for her achievements on Wednesday by thousands of fans in the Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes will no longer give away their number 22 jersey.
WNBA legend warns: “Now comes the reality”
Nevertheless, she is not met with only undivided sympathy. Diana Taurasi, the player from whom Clark had just taken the three-point record, stands out as the most prominent critic.
“Now comes the reality,” said the Phoenix Mercury playing WNBA legend on ESPN: “You see it in the NBA, and you will see it here too. Against 18 year olds it looks like you have superhuman abilities. But now she’s meeting grown women who have been playing professional basketball for a long time.”
For two-time WNBA champion Breanna Stewart, Clark’s career has one crucial flaw despite her successful record chase. To be considered the greatest college player in history, she would have had to win a title, the New York Liberty star said.
Clark is considered a safe number 1 pick
Even though Clark has never won the college championship, she is considered a safe No. 1 pick in next Monday’s draft. It is also a given that the Indiana Fever will take her in this position.
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With wise foresight, the Mercury from Phoenix already advertised for the game against Indiana, in which the then 42-year-old Taurasi will meet prodigy Clark on June 30th. The cheapest tickets for the duel of the generations are not available for less than 109 dollars.
The Las Vegas Aces also want to benefit from the Clark hype and are moving to the T-Mobile Arena especially for the game against Indiana. The hall, in which the NHL team the Vegas Golden Knights also plays, has a capacity of 20,000 spectators – 8,000 more than the actual home of the Aces.
But the Clark boom didn’t just reach sports in the USA. In the year of the presidential election, the political parties have also long since discovered the potential of the Clark phenomenon.
Democrats and Republicans are courting Clark
The fact that Iowa is one of the swing states in the Midwest, where neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have a secure majority, makes the courtship around and with Clark even more explosive.
Republican Senator Joni Ernst and her party colleague Chuck Grassley publicly and extensively praised Clark’s achievements in March and emphasized how proud the whole of Iowa was of her.
The campaign team of the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden ran advertising clips in the seven most important states for the Democrats throughout the final tournament. On the final Sunday, the spot “For You” was shown, which was first broadcast shortly after Biden’s State of the Union speech at the beginning of March and in which Biden directly attacks his competitor Donald Trump.
Many of the approximately 20 million viewers of the final may have seen the advert – thanks in large part to Caitlin Clark.
2024-04-11 15:10:11
#phenomenon #sport
