World Courant
Caitlin Clark, the all-time main scorer in each males’s and girls’s basketball, has been chosen first total by the Indiana Fever within the 2024 WNBA Draft.
There was by no means any doubt that Clark, the star of the Iowa Hawkeyes for the previous 4 seasons, could be the highest choose off the draft board on this extremely gifted class. Now the Fever have Clark and 2023 first total choose heart Aliyah Boston main the best way.
Clark enters her WNBA rookie season with thousands and thousands of followers in tow already, fascinating the sports activities world a lot that legendary South Carolina head coach Daybreak Staley has already referred to as her one of many biggest of all time in girls’s basketball.
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Caitlin Clark poses for a photograph whereas receiving a present from Tissot on the gamers’ lodge in the course of the 2024 WNBA Draft on April 14, 2024 in New York, New York. (Melanie Fidler/NBAE by way of Getty Photos)
Clark averaged 28.4 factors throughout her 4 seasons with the Hawkeyes, together with 31.6 factors per sport with 8.9 assists and seven.4 rebounds throughout her unimaginable 2023-2024 senior season.
She broke LSU basketball legend Pete Maravich’s all-time NCAA scoring document this previous season, amongst many different accolades, together with NCAA match data en path to a nationwide championship sport. Iowa finally misplaced to undefeated South Carolina.
CAITLIN CLARK’S FINAL 3-WORD GOODBYE TO IOWA AS COLLEGIATE CAREER COMES TO AN END
Clark completed her profession with a complete of three,951 factors, together with 548 three-pointers on 1,452 makes an attempt for a mark of 37.7% from past the arc.
It could not have been the best way Clark needed to finish her profession, particularly after shedding the nationwide title sport to LSU the season earlier than, however her contributions to girls’s basketball over the previous two seasons have been inconceivable to disregard.
The nationwide title sport drew 18.7 million viewers to ABC’s protection with a peak of 24 million viewers in the course of the sport, in keeping with ESPN. That is 89% greater than final season and 285% greater than the 2022 nationwide championship sport.
Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates in the course of the second half towards the LSU Tigers within the Elite 8 spherical of the NCAA Ladies’s Basketball Match at MVP Enviornment on April 1, 2024 in Albany, New York. (Andy Lyons/Getty Photos)
Furthermore, since 2019, it was probably the most watched sporting occasion exterior of American soccer and the Olympic Video games.
In fact, the truth that the Gamecocks went for an undefeated season helped enhance viewership, however the “Clark Impact” was in full swing months earlier than that, with many hoping she would be capable of cap off her profession with a nationwide title.
That stardom is predicted to switch to the WNBA, which already has quite a few stars reminiscent of New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, Las Vegas Aces’ Kelsey Plum and A’ja Wilson, Seattle Storm’s Nneke Ogwumike and lots of others.
“I do know there’s most likely going to be a studying curve, however I’ve at all times had confidence in myself and that is at all times what I remind myself. You are not right here accidentally,” Clark instructed The TODAY Present forward of the Draft.
“I feel largely I am simply actually excited. It is a dream. That is one thing I wrote on a bit of paper in second grade.”
Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates after profitable towards the LSU Tigers in the course of the finals of the NCAA Ladies’s Basketball Match – Albany Regional at MVP Enviornment on April 1, 2024 in Albany, New York. (Andy Lyons/Getty Photos)
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The Fever will depend upon Clark’s means to get again into the playoffs subsequent season for the primary time since 2016. Indiana completed 13-27 within the 40-game common season final yr after going 5-31 and 6-26 within the earlier two seasons.
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Scott Thompson is a sports activities author for Fox Information Digital.
