It goes without saying how much of an impact Caitlin Clark has had on basketball. However, it doesn’t hurt to receive compliments from those who know the game so well.
For Isiah Thomas, he sang the praises of Clark who is taking the sports world by storm.
“I actually love the attention that Caitlin has brought to the WNBA, and I love the attention that women’s basketball is getting,” Thomas told OutKick’s Dan Dakich.
“For too long … the media hasn’t really shined a light on the WNBA athletically and competitively,” the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer added. They will give it a nod every now and then. But now, since Caitlin has arrived — and she had a great college career, and she was fantastic to watch … and you’re curious — you want to see it go on. I think it’s great what she’s done, and I think it’s great what the media and the WNBA and marketing and the players are doing.”
Clark was making a name for herself before she was drafted No.1 overall in the 2024 WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever.
During her time at Iowa, she became the school’s all-time leading scorer, and all-time leader in assists, achieved the most 30-point games by any man or woman in Division I in the past 25 seasons, set NCAA single-season record for 3-pointers and set the Big Ten career record for 3-pointers … just to name a few.
She was able to turn that attention toward her professional career by selling out her debut against the Connecticut Sun in May. That was after drawing 13,000 in a preseason game against the Atlanta Dream. The ticket sales have had opposing teams needing to move teams to bigger venues.
Thomas believes the product is mirroring that of the NBA which, as most successful things do, possesses controversy.
That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, according to the two-time NBA champ.
“Controversy is not good, but controversy sells and whether the NBA wants to admit it or not, the NBA … the steps that it made to get to the place that it’s at from a fan appeal standpoint … the NBA over the years had to go through some very controversial moments, and they stepped up and they met the challenge,” Thomas added.
“The WNBA is in its … I think is in its 26th or 27th year of existence, and it’s going to go through those controversial moments and I have no doubt that they’ll step up and meet the challenge,” Thomas said.
[OutKick]
