SPORTSDISTINCTION  12.24

Caitlin Clark Effect

By Diana Addison Lyle

The Caitlin Clark Effect is an apt term when measuring the seismic impact that Caitlin Clark has made on women’s basketball. From college phenomenon for the Iowa Hawkeyes to the October 2024 announcement of Caitlin as the WNBA Rookie of the Year, players of her caliber come along once in a generation, and the results are explosive: WNBA viewership has increased by 170% this past season and is on record as the most-viewed regular season ever with a record 136.29 million hours across all national networks.

22-year-old Caitlin has taken women’s basketball to another echelon, becoming an investment dream as she continues to inspire a new generation of fans and players. Sponsors have found a young woman who is a great role model. Everything she does on and off the basketball court draws admiration and support.

After being named Rookie of the Year, she immediately paid tribute to boyfriend Connor McCaffery, celebrating by sharing a shoutout to him for being her assist. Despite her own success, she has always transferred the spotlight to Connor and his achievements – something that says a lot about her unselfishness.

The No.1 overall pick of the draft certainly lived up to expectations. Caitlin’s first season in the WNBA was a slam dunk—with an average of 19.2 points, 6 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game in her first season in the league. And the judges panel knew it—with the 22-year-old receiving 66 of the 67 first place votes from the panels of writers and broadcasters who decided on the achievement.

Caitlin helped lead the Indiana Fever to their first postseason berth since 2016. Although Indiana made a first-round exit, Clark averaged 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 8.5 assists over two games. Fever’s jersey sales increased by over 1,000% mid-way through the season. Attendance at games Caitlin competed in was 88% higher compared to games without her star presence.

She not only broke rookie records but also shattered league records. Beyond the court, her presence in the league brought tens of thousands of new fans to the WNBA. In her record-breaking career, Caitlin scored the most points by any college player in NCAA history. She’s also the first player to have at least 3,800 points, 1,000 assists, and 950 rebounds in a career.

She ended her phenomenal 2024 season with these words:

“I am incredibly honored to be named Rookie of the Year, but more than that, I am grateful to everyone that supported me throughout this past season — my family and friends, my teammates, the Fever organization and everyone that cheered us on all season. I am so proud of what we accomplished and so excited for what the future holds.”

Caitlin Clark (22 Indiana Fever) reacts to a play during the game between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever on Sunday June 23, 2024 at Wintrust Arena, Chicago PHOTO: ALAMY

If one studies what makes a great team athlete exceptional – Caitlin is pretty much the definition of perfection:

1. She has speed, strength and exceptional coordination
2. Intelligence
3. She has exceptional scoring ability
4. Elite passing skills
5. Overall playmaking prowess
6. She elevates the standard of play of all her teammates
7. She has the presence of mind to be an offensive force on the court
8. She has the power of vision to create scoring opportunities for her team
9. She has a champion’s mental strength and determination

Genetic Aptitude

If you combine all these championship skills with her undeniable genetic talent, you have a veritable force of nature on the basketball court. But it takes far more than that to be as good as Caitlin is. She has a work ethic second to none, and a level of determination that is rare. As a five-year-old, she played with boys and frustrated them by mastering dribbling the basketball around them. But it’s the countless hours she devoted to the sport that became her passion that made the significant difference.

Environment

Caitlin grew up in a family of sports champions and high achievers who were highly supportive of her goals and dreams. Her parents, Brent and Anne Nizzi-Clark, and her two brothers, Blake and Colin, were gifted. Dad, Brent Clark, a former college basketball and baseball player at Simpson College in Iowa, coached Caitlin as a child. He said that she was a natural at basketball from a young age, and by the third grade, she had her sights set on the WNBA.

Micro-excellence

While Caitlin’s work ethic is exceptional, she’s an expert at micro-excellence. She’s obsessed with perfecting the tiny details and trains aggressively to develop the endurance and strength needed to sustain quick, high-stress games. Her training includes strength training exercises like squats, jumps, and dead lifts, as well as shooting drills in which she takes 300 shots in quick succession. She’s perfected several ways of shooting, and she studies how to create the necessary space around her so that she can best execute her shots. For a shooter with the vast range that she has, distance is less of a factor. Having the space around her becomes the more important element. She has an average 3-point shot distance of 28.09 feet through 28 games of her rookie season. Her strategies include biomechanics, and she’s probably studying other great athletes across other sports to incorporate the latest strength-training techniques and dietary needs.

Caitlin Clark playing with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Photo courtesy of Hawkeyesports.com

It’s no exaggeration to say that this 22-year-old Iowa native is an athletic revelation: she is currently the highest-scoring athlete in the history of college basketball, and Lisa Bluder, her coach at the University of Iowa, has referred to her as ‘the best player in America.’

The endorsements are pouring in from major brands like Nike and Gatorade. Corporations are lining up to sign contracts with an athlete whose talent and transcendent presence have broken viewership records, drawn capacity crowds at home and on the road, and attracted 17,000 spectators to an open practice during Final Four weekend. Her WNBA jersey sold out within hours of her being drafted No.1 overall by the Indiana Fever, and multiple teams have moved upcoming games to larger venues to accommodate ‘unprecedented demand’ for Fever games. Caitlin has earned every business opportunity including a reported $28 million Nike pact that includes her own signature shoe line.

Bring it on, 2025. It’s going to be an exciting year.