Caitlin Clark is one of the brightest stars in women’s basketball. Since playing her first season for the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2020, she has quickly risen through the basketball ranks. Clark is perhaps best known for her ability to confidently knock down long threes, but she is much more than just a 3-point shooter. It took her only one season to make the All-WNBA First Team and finish in the top four of MVP voting.
Now, her stardom has officially reached the NBA discourse, as former NBA star Isiah Thomas compared Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton to Clark. Haliburton just led his team past the Cleveland Cavaliers to advance to the Eastern Conference Semifinals with a big Game 5 performance. He finished the game with 31 points on 10-15 shooting from the field and 6-10 shooting from three, six rebounds, eight assists, one steal, and one block.
Particularly, his 3-point shooting caught people’s attention.
“The way [Tyrese] played the game tonight, this is a Caitlin Clark type of game,” Isiah Thomas said on NBA GameTime. “He’s shooting it from way, way, way, way, way, way, way, waaaay out there.”
Thomas’s comment underlines the rise of the WNBA
Player comparisons are a big part of professional basketball. However, it is not very common to see an NBA player compared to a WNBA player. While the WNBA has seen its fair share of great and even legendary players, analysts tend to rely on NBA stars for their comparisons.
The fact that Thomas opted to compare Haliburton’s shooting to Clark’s game rather than Stephen Curry’s ability to hit tough threes speaks to the rise of the WNBA. It also speaks to Clark’s stardom. The “Caitlin Clark Effect” is obviously still in full effect.
Indiana just drew massive numbers of fans to a preseason game against the Brazilian national team, a large majority of the Fever’s regular-season games will be broadcast on national TV, and opponents are still moving games against the Fever to bigger arenas. There are plenty of talented players in the WNBA who all contributed to the rise in popularity, but there is no denying that Caitlin Clark’s arrival in the league changed things.
The 2024 season was filled with record-setting games in terms of attendance and viewership numbers. This season could be even better. If it is, Clark and the Fever will be a big reason why. Fans should be thrilled to watch Clark play for a more competitive team in her second season.