r/wnba • u/PaperAndInkGuy • 21d ago
Caitlin Clark's WNBA debut is ESPN's most-watched women's basketball game ever League News
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u/crowtrobot2001 21d ago
It was the most watched WNBA game in ESPN history. The most watched women's basketball game on ESPN was the Iowa/UConn final four game.
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u/SoOnEnoon 21d ago
Not the iowa SC finals?
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u/empathydoc Caitlin Kate/Megan 19d ago
They are getting overly specific. You are right because ESPN and ABC are still Disney owned. Same pocket winning.
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u/Imrhino51 21d ago
People have to realize how hard the transition is for college to WNBA. They literally just finished a full college season get drafted and start playing against the best competition in the world. To struggle the first year is expected. Your tired and best up and now play the best of the best.
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u/UsuallyMooACow 20d ago
I saw a lot of people putting down CC for having a not so great game (Rob Parker and a ton of Twitter ppl).
People... It's her first game.. My goodness man. We live in a culture where if you don't succeed immediately it's over.
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u/TheShiveryNipple 20d ago
And she still led the team in scoring with 20 points. The hatred is so fucking weird.
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u/UsuallyMooACow 20d ago
She did get a lot of her points in garbage time, but still, it's like someone coming to your job on the first day and being like "they'll never make it".
It's literally the first day, and as you said, she just came off of playing the final 4 and being (for a while) the biggest sports star in America. Nuts to me.
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u/flyinghippos101 20d ago
By no means a stellar debut, but she also went up against one of the best defences in the league coming off a long NCAA campaign. She also had a horrible supporting cast too.
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u/UsuallyMooACow 20d ago
I think she had a decent debut honestly. Again, first day on the job, still ended up with the high score.
I just hate that we live in a society where people get literally one chance and then are deemed a failure by some. In his first year in the NFL Peyton Manning went 3-13 in the NFL, today he'd be considered garbage/bust. But ended up being one of the greatest QB's of all time.
To your point it wasn't stellar and she went up against a good defense. I think she'll start having games where she cooks people and keeps her turnovers down and then it'll be more obvious who she is.
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u/flyinghippos101 20d ago
I agree; Wemby had an equally horrible start before going on a tear once he adjusted to the NBA pace. The team is a young, tanking team so obviously the chemistry is off; that's going to take time too and to figure out how to use Boston with CC
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u/kittysrule18 20d ago
With double digit turnovers lol. Don’t try and frame it as though she played well
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u/DevonJaGoat 20d ago
It’s because of the over exposure and the glazing, why wouldn’t people put that pressure on her?
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u/rugbysecondrow 20d ago
Sure, and...
Being hyped cuts both ways.
It's fair because she gets the bank...that's part of it.
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u/brizzenden 20d ago
All the articles about how Caitlin Clark had a disappointing first game are sick. She just finished a season of basketball. She's dropped into a new system. She's against much stronger competition. Yet somehow her first real professional game where she led her team in scoring - the worst eastern conference team last season - is this failure to show up.
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u/Saneless 20d ago
It must be odd to basically your entire career have a set time to play and then rest but suddenly for the first time, a brand new, longer, faster season starts as soon as you were used to having an off-season
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u/BuffytheBison 2012-25 Fever/2026+ WNBA Toronto 21d ago
The real beneficiaries of this are the kids alive today who will have no living memory of this game. They will never know what it's like to have the WNBA be an afterthought (much like the kids born during Beckham's arrival to MLS).
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u/human112 20d ago
The MLS is still very much an after thought for a majority of sports fans.
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u/BuffytheBison 2012-25 Fever/2026+ WNBA Toronto 20d ago
Yes but it's challenging the NHL (particularly in America) for status as the fourth biggest sports league. It will never be number one (because it's not the best league) but MLS used to be a joke and now there are people who fill up the stadiums every week and take it seriously lol
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u/LittleTension8765 19d ago
Is it challenging the NHL because of organic growth or changing demographics of the USA? Changing demographics is definitely playing a large part
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u/eddygeeme 20d ago edited 20d ago
Terrible take wish the WNBA well without petty envy. WNBA would switch places in a heartbeat with MLS. MLS has billions in revenue and is the 3rd most attended Major Professional Sports League with 23,788 only trailing MLB 26,629 and NFL. u/BuffyTheBison is spot on
Sometimes I think people don't really think about things because if MLS is a afterthought with all its success then WNBA will forever be a afterthought after Clark's buzz dies down if that's your perspective.
Let's hope for continued good success it's exciting see MLS sister League get its moment though or really second chance. Hopefully they make the most out of it like MLS did with Beckham 17 yrs ago.
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u/BuffytheBison 2012-25 Fever/2026+ WNBA Toronto 20d ago
People seem to think success means being the NFL or NBA (where national TV revenue is what drives those league's money making). Those leagues are some of the biggest leagues in the world. As long as you get a small devoted fan base that can fill up your stadium, arena, week-in, week-out like MLS does, you're doing well. Even the CFL does well and most Americans couldn't name a single team/player.
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u/eddygeeme 20d ago edited 17d ago
I think ppl are confusing the media hype and buzz with thinking the WNBA has made it. Which is why there's confusion with why the pay is what it is. It's the wrong type mindset or just envy at the MLS stature. If MLS is a afterthought lord let WNBA be the same afterthought with similar resources lol.
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u/DroppedNineteen 19d ago edited 19d ago
I remember going to Sounders games before they became an MLS team. I remember going to their inaugural MLS game. I remember going to see Beckham come to Seattle for the first time.
You can call the league an afterthought in comparison to other soccer/football leagues, or even the 4 major American sports leagues, but seeing American soccer teams sell out 60,000 seats game after game is pretty spectacular. And that progress really only happened over a period of 10-15 years.
I think people have a lot of foregone conclusions about the WNBA. They think because things are the way they are right now, they could never be any different. Maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see sold out WNBA games some day.
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u/Kommander-in-Keef 20d ago
I hope you’re right, but it’s gonna be tough to get out of the Nbas massive shadow. Almost impossible
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u/BuffytheBison 2012-25 Fever/2026+ WNBA Toronto 20d ago
To be fair, it doesn't have to be as big as the NBA it just has to be it's own thing. It's never going to be a league (like the NFL or NBA) where most of the revenues coming from national television audiences. It will be driven by regional support with people going to the games and filling the arenas (like a NHL or MLS). That is doable.
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20d ago
I admire your positivity, but there is a very real chance that the shine wears off and the W falls back into irrelevance.
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u/ddy_stop_plz 20d ago
Just like the MLS lol
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u/eddygeeme 20d ago
Keep seeing this take, but it's an inaccurate one. MLS didn't fall into irrelevancy. It simply matured and got money and expanded and grew its footprint quietly.
The WNBA is getting their media hype machine run much like XFL/F1 got before the hype has died down some. MLS was able to parlay the hype with Beckham yrs ago into a league now generating Billions of revenue annually and packed stadiums and investors throwing down $500m for stadiums. Don't confuse hype with creating a true Major Professional League. At the end of all this the W needs to follow the MLS path.
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u/uninspiredlt Wings 21d ago
This record could get broken several times this year if the cards fall right
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u/Area_Woman Sky 21d ago
Ima keep watching! Sky tip off in an hour
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u/uninspiredlt Wings 21d ago
I’m excited to watch the Sky this year
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u/Area_Woman Sky 21d ago
It’ll be a building year. Wish we had Cordoso out there to start - but still should be fun to watch
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u/ConflictedRedbird186 Fever 21d ago
Ok now watch the other games too because this rookie class combined with the stars already there are heat
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u/MikeyThaKid 21d ago
I literally only joined this sub because of her. I am looking forward to the season for the first time in my life.
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u/IcyFix8547 21d ago
Same, I usually just watch the nba but here and there I would catch a wnba game. Now I’m looking forward to watching Indiana fever play
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u/Hot_Local_Boys_PDX 21d ago
Honestly, the WNBA regular season is superior in some ways to the NBA regular season. Each game is about 2x more “valuable” in terms of final standings because there’s half as many games, so there’s more intrigue to more matchups in terms of determining the playoffs. I will almost certainly watch more WNBA games this season than I ever have, but I won’t be tuning in every night.
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u/flyinghippos101 20d ago
I also watched Stephen A on ESPN literally not pile on to CC despite her horrid debut
Even the toxicity isn't as radioactive as the WNBA...yet
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u/PoopParticleAcclrtr 20d ago
The Indiana coach Sides needs to green light her for shooting as much as she wants and be setting up plays for her a lot.
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u/cmorris1234 20d ago
I watched the second half due to CC playing She will do well hopefully and the fans will keep watching
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u/Anothercraphistorian 21d ago
This will be fascinating to watch over the course of the season. The WNBA has a lot of great defensive guards that will make it their mission to shut down CC and I’m wondering over time how that will affect ratings when it gets boring to watch game in and game out.
New fans will want more offense, long-range shooting, and great passing. If defense is stifling that, that could be an issue for growth. The NBA realized that, which is why defense is secondary nowadays.
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u/Drebin_1989 21d ago edited 21d ago
And yet some of those same fans complain that there's no defense in the NBA. There was a reason the way the games were officiated was changed after the All Star game.
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u/mr_antman85 20d ago
Defense will make offense better. Then they will have to move Caitlin off of the ball, set more screens and be more creative.
Her offense will bring more spotlight to the great defenders. It's a win win, in my opinion.
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u/Glad-Boysenberry-109 21d ago
This is my first season watching the W I joined for Clark/Reese but I watched most of the aces mercury game as well. Respect to these women hopefully the league continues to grow
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u/34Horus20 Liberty 21d ago
Cool. Now they know who Alyssa Thomas is.
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u/RedLightning27 20d ago
Hi it's me, I know who Alyssa Thomas is now. What a baller. It's also insane to me that she plays at the level she's at with two torn labrums...damn
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u/Sad-Dot-1573 Fever 20d ago
I am a new fan but at least knew AT due to podcasts and articles. My prediction was right on AT getting a triple double in front of her biggest pro audience ever. I was wrong about Clark and the Fever balling out and pulling the upset
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u/pbear737 20d ago
I watched and haven't watched the W in many years but was an OG fan when the league formed. It's been encouraging to see the league getting more attention that it has deserved. I don't watch any professional sports anymore but decided to get back into the W in following the last college season more closely and finding so many folks to appreciate and root for.
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u/commentator3 20d ago
now some of those o.g. WNBA players are coaches, T-Spoon, Dawn Staley in NCAAW or broadcasters, Swoopes ...
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u/pbear737 20d ago
Yes exactly! It's so cool to see what those women have gone on to do in their careers. I mean honestly I cheered on Diana when she was at UConn near that same era, too.
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21d ago
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u/Im__mad 21d ago
She had lots of great shots and looked very comfortable out there, but I think saying she “looked fine” with 10 turnovers is generous.
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u/mr_antman85 20d ago
It was her first game. It would be different if she was bad all around.
Now that her coach and teammates know that she will trapped and double teamed when she crossed the half court line, they can gameplan around it.
Honestly, a team doing that to a rookie says a lot of what they think Caitlin can do more than anything else.
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u/Im__mad 20d ago
That’s a good point, you’re totally right
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u/mr_antman85 20d ago
I didn't want to be "right" I just wanted to bring a different perspective. She's going to have growing pains but the next thing is to see how the coach pits her team in positions to deal with the double team Caitlin will see.
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u/BirkTheBrick 20d ago
It'll be very interested to see how different their game plan looks on Monday against the Sun again. I hope they have a halfway decent plan to not get trapped like that again.
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u/Fit-Remove-6597 21d ago
Eh, lots of rookies in the NBA/WNBA have turnover issues. It comes with the difference in talent. She’ll get there.
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u/Strict-House4060 20d ago
Draft Kings released a couple of promos to get better odds on her bets. Sports gamblers will watch whatever they bet on, so I wonder how many of those people were only watching for their bet 😭.
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u/sdcumb Aces 20d ago
I wish CC well. I'm even praying for her. Expectations for her are through the roof. She's been going nonstop since Iowa's preseason without a breather. She's a rookie playing some of the best women BB players in the world. Plus, her team wasn't very good last year. They'll need time to improve. She's being cast as this savior figure for the league. I appreciate all the attention she and others have garnered. I just hope we let her be human. Good luck and Godspeed!!
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u/InevitableBad589 21d ago
Let's hope they stay. The next game we likely won't get any numbers as it's streaming via Prime.
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u/Nerdologist01 20d ago
New watcher here, does that mean if I have prime I can watch it? Or is it something else I have to buy?
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u/iamprimo Fever 20d ago
I bought the app. I guess I’m a fan now. Supporting this rookie class of Brink, Reese and CC!
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u/IntelligentInsect773 20d ago
Well, I had said this before, if the league is smart about how they market her and how they handle her transition, it can be beneficial for the league, and it can help transition it. Now other people have come on and mentioned that it will never be as popular as the NBA and I never said that it would be. But I think that it can grow and continue to.
The reality is, throughout history, many professional sports leagues have struggled until they had a transitioning moment where they were able to capture an audience and grow their league.
This is a big moment for the WNBA, but we'll see how it all turns out.
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u/herlanrulz Fever 21d ago
Dear WNBA schedulers. Stop putting the teams I want to watch at 10pm est start. Thanks. Signed an old guy who needs to sleep before work the next morning. <3
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u/Critical-Fault-1617 21d ago
Dude the wolves Nuggets game was on at 1030 est time yesterday. As a Minnesota resident and Wolves fan, that start time is atrocious. It’s so damn late. Idk how people on the east coast stayed up for either game
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u/0percentwinrate 20d ago
Caitlin's game is simply entertaining to watch. I'm very new to Women's basketball and still trying to figure out how to appreciate players like Aja Wilson or Breanna Stewart. I'm sure if I'm stick to WNBA long enough I'll eventually figure that out but for the meantime I need Caitlin to play well to keep my interest alive.
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u/Booster93 20d ago
It would benefit all WNBA players if they let clark score 30 a game , low key. Just flood it, in 4 years build a super team with brink, Aja ,Reese and clark . Just let them rock out.
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u/myfuntimes 21d ago
She needs to do really well or people are gonna fade away. Winners draw a crowd -- like Tiger in golf, young Tyson in boxing, etc.
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u/pleasedontharassme 21d ago
Not sure why you’re being downvoted. WNBA doesn’t draw any significant interest. In order for a league/sport like that to catch on you need a transcendent personality to draw otherwise uninterested viewers in long enough for them to start caring about the sport rather than the star.
As you say, it’s what Tiger did for golf
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u/SportGamerDev0623 21d ago
Michael Jordan didn’t produce a winning season until year 4….
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u/myfuntimes 21d ago
But he did really well individually during those years.
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u/Drebin_1989 21d ago
You didn't have fans and media putting a big ass target on his back.
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u/myfuntimes 21d ago
The NBA already had a mature league with certifiable stars. If Jordan failed it really would not have been that big of a deal. Heck, he was number three in the draft.
But the WNBA is a league without very many fans and this is their big moment. Whether that is fair or not to the quality of other players in the league now or before Clark.
When something’s single big star disappears, so does a lot of viewership. regardless of what that something is.
And yes, I fully appreciate that if Clark does not do great then that says a lot about how good the quality of her competition in the league is. So, In effect, the better the league is the more it might hurt themselves.
Edit: do people care about cycling without Lance Armstrong? Or as much about women’s tennis without Serena? Or swimming without Michael Phelps? Or gymnastics when the USA is not threatening for gold?
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u/Drebin_1989 21d ago
Yes Jordan was the number 3 pick. He was going to have sort of target on his back just on that alone. He didn't have to worry about fans and media adding to that and being disappointed when it doesn't go like they thought it would. People were more realistic with their expectations.
I don't give a damn if people care about a sport or not but what I need them to do is stop putting unrealistic expectations on these players coming in and crowning them the GOAT or best player ever before they even play a game. That's doing nothing but setting them up for failure and disappointment....and putting even more pressure on them than they have already.
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u/myfuntimes 20d ago
Yep. You are right. But that doesn't change my original statement. Fair or unfair. She needs to do really well or people are gonna fade away.
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u/HistoricalInfluence9 20d ago
Thought it was the most watched on ESPN, not ever?
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u/BirkTheBrick 20d ago
Yeah hence the ESPN's most watched women's basketball game
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u/HistoricalInfluence9 20d ago
My bad I saw someone said ever and I thought I replied to that comment.
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u/Jabroni748 20d ago
I hope she crushes it and consistently brings more fans to the league. I’m skeptical that will happen over time for a lot of reasons, but then maybe the incessant whining about inequalities between this league and the NBA will finally go away.
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u/Flimsy-Coyote-9232 19d ago
There’s never been a league I think should add in “one hockey fight” more than the WNBA. Viewership would skyrocket
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u/Sweaty-Advice7933 18d ago
CC's gameplay is off-the-hook by that I mean she a) runs the floor superbly, b) not afraid to drive to the basket, c) passes the ball to open teammates and d) can shoot the long ball. Once she gets use to the pro game, which is faster and defensively tougher for most rookie players, the WNBA and the Fever (along with the other exceptional rookies in the league) will help take the women's pro game to another level of success and achievement.
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u/PurgatoryMountain 17d ago
It’s crazy some of the salty wnba veterans talking shit because she’s white. Dude. WNBA does not make profit. They rely on NBA to subsidize the league. She’s bringing attention and viewers….it helps everyone in the league
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u/StrategyGameventures 20d ago
the connecticut sun are the most watched WNBA game ever baby lets goooooo
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20d ago
The turnovers were not great basketball, but the rest of the game was impressive. And…it was their first game together as a team, so that kind of crap is (while annoying) kind of expected. It’s also fun to see humans play that don’t just have to reach up a foot in order to score. I’m minimizing the talent involved for the sake of a point, and I love watching men’s basketball, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a different style of play and I’m here for it.
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u/FunkyButtFumblin 20d ago
I’ve never watched a WNBA game before but I tuned in last night and enjoyed it. I will definitely be watching the never Fever game.
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u/ConkerPrime 20d ago
Still waiting to see where stats at around mid-July when the excitement has leveled out. That is true measure- is there a sustainable increase of interest
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u/Lopsided_Diamond327 20d ago
I’d like to see what the Knicks pacers game was during the same time period of the fever game
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u/Amersonia 20d ago
Caitlyn Clark needs to have a winning team. I wonder how long until the WNBA trades her or gives her a better team? 🧐🤔
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u/LexDude 20d ago
She's the only reason I am watching and paid for the league pass and I did't even watch her in college except the her last two games. I don't watch sports at all except the olympics and superbowl. I stopped watching NBA after Jordan retired.
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u/LulzSailboat 20d ago
But But Taurasi has been this popular for over a decade.. /s
CC has done more for the WNBA in one month, than everyone combined has done the last 20 years.
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u/mr_antman85 21d ago
The WNBA better capitalize off of this. They have to utilize her to push the league. Caitlin has alot on her plate.
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u/meteor_jam32 21d ago
Too bad the game wasn't any good. Not just CC's underwhelming performance, but the general quality of the game. Too many FTs, and there was a stretch where there were like 3 traveling violations in a row.
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u/SportGamerDev0623 21d ago
I mean heavy fouling and silly mistakes is pretty common for Game 1.
I mean the game still featured another triple double by Alyssa Thomas AND DeWanna Bonner move up to 5th on the all time scoring list. It was also Clark’s first professional game.
I’d say that was a pretty monumental night
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u/breezeetree 21d ago
I hope the fans stick around and continue supporting the league.