Caitlin Clark Is Still The Only Thing Popular About The WNBA | Bobby Burack

The WNBA is not growing like it should.

In 2024, the WNBA recorded its most-watched regular season in 24 years. However, the top 16 most-watched games all featured rookie sensation Caitlin Clark.

On the surface, the disparity in popularity between Clark and the other players is not a negative. There was a time when Tiger Woods was that much more popular than any other golfer. Likewise, Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor were also mainstream attractions when the UFC was still mostly a niche sport.

The difference is that the interest in Woods, Rousey, and McGregor eventually elevated the interest in those around them. That is not the case in terms of Clark and the WNBA.

National ratings for the WNBA dropped 55% after Clark's injury this season. Clark returned on Saturday after a three-week absence and viewership predictably skyrocketed. The Fever's win over the Liberty averaged 2.2 million viewers, marking the third most-watched WNBA game on ABC ever.

In short, Clark is worth double the national viewership for the WNBA. And that's not a positive. Relying so much on one player in a team sport is hardly the sign of a healthy league.

Of course, the WNBA community is to blame.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - JUNE 14: Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever celebrates during the game against the New York Liberty on June 14, 2025 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Melissa Tamez/NBAE via Getty Images)

Rather than embracing the golden goose, many of the WNBA players met Clark's popularity with fierce resentment. Players like Angel Reese, Chennedy Carter, and DiJonai Carrington hard-fouled her on the court, mocked her on social media, and dismissed her popularity as a product of white privilege. 

Moreover, the WNBA media spent much of Clark's rookie campaign shaming her fans and suggesting their interest was rooted in a modern form of great white hope-ism. Fans don't like that.

The WNBA had a chance to showcase its other players through the interest in Clark. Instead, the players and commentators gave Clark fans unlimited reasons to only watch Clark.

In fact, ESPN host David Dennis Jr. dared fans of Clark to stop watching the WNBA when she wasn't playing. That they did, to the tune of over 50%.

Part of the issue is casting. The WNBA cast Angel Reese as the chief rival to Clark. However, Reese is hardly the Larry Bird to Clark's Magic Johnson or the Phil Mickelson to Clark's Tiger Woods. Reese is not near Clark's level as a player. As a person, Reese conducts herself like a spoiled, entitled, unhinged brat.

Here's Reese's most recent TikTok post, in which she responds to jokes about her grabbing her own rebounds from missed layups to pad her stat sheet:

For the "People watch the WNBA for Angel Reese too" camp, of which Reese is a part, her Chicago Sky faced the Indiana Fever without Clark earlier this month. The television audience showed up, but interest was so low that you could score tickets for $3 a pop.  

The catty mean girl act doesn't sell.

By all accounts, the WNBA is on track to squander its moment. If the WNBA doesn't find a way to tone down the anti-Clark jealousy and animosity, the league is not going to grow beyond just one player.

The potential is there. Over 2 million people spent their Saturday watching one WNBA game. Yet if over a million of them tuned in only because of Clark, how much of a win really is that for the WNBA as a whole?

Advice: enough with race hoaxes, false allegations of racism, and middle school drama.

Take the politics out of the game. Make the presentation of the WNBA exciting, not preachy and a promotion of LGBTQ-ism and BLM. It shouldn't be this hard. 

And yet, over a year after her debut, Caitlin Clark is still the only positive the WNBA has.