Penton: One word for Caitlin Clark: Dominating
By Bruce Penton
She was born on the 22nd day of January, 2002, wears No. 22 for the Iowa Hawkeyes and her team finished No. 2 in the NCAA women’s basketball championship, but Caitlin Clark has No. 1 written all over her.
There was perhaps no more famous athlete in North America during the month of March than Clark, whose dominance on the basketball court turned her from a prodigy to a legend. She was the obvious No. 1 selection in last week’s Women’s National Basketball Association draft, going to the Indiana Fever, and most sports analysts in the U.S. predict that thanks to Clark, the women’s pro game will get the same attention boost she gave the college game the past couple of seasons.
Not especially tall at 6-foot-0, Clark nonetheless dominated her sport for the past two years and her team’s games became must-see TV across most of the basketball-crazed U.S.A.
With a deadly eye for the three-point shot, Clark averaged 31.6 points per game as Iowa posted a 34-5 record en route to the national final against South Carolina, which completed its undefeated season with a 87-75 win over Clark’s Hawkeyes. The Clark legend grew and grew and grew all year, to the point where her team’s championship game against South Carolina drew a TV audience of 18.7 million, more viewers than any basketball game in 2024 of any level — men’s or women’s college games, NBA and WNBA included. ESPN has already announced that 36 of Indiana’s 40 WNBA games next season will be nationally televised.
Coach Dawn Staley of South Carolina was quick to pay tribute to the Clark effect, saying after the championship game that she wanted to "personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a heavy load for our sport and it just is not gonna stop here on the collegiate tour. But when she is the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, she's gonna lift that league up as well. So Caitlin Clark if you're out there, you are one of the GOATs of our game. We appreciate you.”
Besides becoming a household name, Clark also became the collegiate game’s all-time leading scorer, with 3,685 points in four seasons. The men’s mark which she surpassed was held by LSU’s Pistol Pete Maravich, who scored 3,667 points in three years.
Clark will undoubtedly sign a lucrative contract with Indiana and continue to be a Sports Centre darling, but money is the least of her worries. Thanks to the introduction a couple of years ago of Name, Image and Likeness payments to college athletes, Clark is already worth more than $3 million, with dozens of endorsement contracts to her credit. Good thing, too, because the maximum salary for a WNBA rookie is $76,300. Tip money, basically.
The phenomenon that is Caitlin Clark now enters its next chapter, and the WNBA will be the beneficiary. In stock-market parlance, the WNBA’s arrow is pointing straight up.
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Even though Dec. 25th is on Wednesday this year, the NFL announced that it will play two games on Christmas Day, thus commandeering a holiday that was once the NBA’s showcase day. In the NBA’s eyes, the NFL truly is ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.’
Eamon Lynch of golfweek.usatoday.com: “Bryson DeChambeau, one of the arsonists who set golf’s house on fire, is now complaining that others aren’t moving quickly enough to extinguish the blaze.”
Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley, saying the 12th hole will never be lengthened, as suggested by 2000 champ Vijay Singh: “That’s almost like asking, you know, can we touch up the Mona Lisa a little bit.”
Headline at TheBeaverton.com.: “O..J Simpson funeral to feature ceremonial televised white bronco chase.”
Another one from the Beaverton, which wrote a story headlined: “Ten names for Utah’s new NHL team even less representative of the state than Jazz. No. 5: Utah Gangster Rappers; No. 8. Utah Open Past 10 p.m.-ers”
O.J. Simpson death headline in the The New York Post, exhibiting extreme New York Posty: “Real Killer is Dead.”
And the Beaverton, piling on: “O.J. Simpson dies surrounded by family members he didn’t kill.”
Comedy guy Torben Rolfsen of Vancouver: “The Masters music makes Barry Manilow sound like The Clash.”
RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: “Tiger Woods says if everything comes together, he believes he can win another Masters. He got me so fired up I sent another set of marriage proposals to Ann Hathaway, Margot Robbie and Gal Godot.”
Another one from RJ Currie: “Pittsburgh police arrested a Nashville Predators fan for throwing a catfish onto the ice, then later dropped all charges. Poetic justice — he was caught and released.”
Headline at fark.com: “Shohei Ohtani was not involved with his interpreter’s gambling scandal according to the Brinks truck of money MLB used to make it the truth.”
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca