It's difficult to dispute the idea that Caitlin Clark is a generational talent who has the potential to become the WNBA's greatest player of all time — but when she'll get there and by what metric that greatness will be measured is up for debate. Kind of.
Sportsbook Review published a report that predicts Clark will achieve GOAT status in 13 years, by the time she's 35. The website used records Clark set during her rookie season as the basis for its argument, including that she broke Seimone Augustus' single-season rookie scoring record, she broke Alysha Clark's single-season assists tally, became the fastest player in the league to score 100 career 3-pointers and the first rookie to hit that record ever, was the first rookie to rack up multiple triple-doubles in a season (and only the 6th player ever to do so), and her 14 double-doubles were the most by a guard in the history of the WNBA.
And that was all one season — the same season where she helped the Fever get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. So again, Clark achieving GOAT status is not a matter of if, but purely of when.
When will Caitlin Clark top Diana Taurasi and Tamika Catchings
When you are chasing greats in the WNBA, there are a handful of names right at the top: Diana Taurasi, Tamika Catchings, Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie, and Maya Moore should easily make up anyone's top-5 list.
From a purely stats perspective, Taurasi is the one player to rule them all. In September 2024 she became the all-time leading scorer in the WNBA with 10,646 career points. Taurasi retired from the WNBA this month, so it will be up to players in league now an in the future to catch up. (If you're curious, in second place is Tina Charles with 7,696 career points, and Clark's teammate DeWanna Bonner is sitting high on the list at the fourth spot with 7,482 points — and she's still hooping).
Sue Bird leads the league in assists, with 3,234 before she retired 2022. Bird is followed by Courtney Vandersloot, who has 2,850 assists as of March 2025. Taurasi again leads the crowd in terms of career 3 pointers made, with 1,447.
When it comes to catching and breaking records, shooting, especially 3-point shooting, and assists are Clark's thing and there's no doubt she'll get very close to the records set if she doesn't smash through them entirely, especially if she enjoys the lengthy and prolific WNBA career that many expect.
But when will it happen? Stats-wise, Sportsbook Review predicts Clark can hit at least 900 points a season with a 40-game schedule and, with that in mind, says she'll become the GOAT in her 13th year of play — but the league has already bumped up the games to 44 a year and will likely add 4-8 more after the Toronto and Portland teams are folded in, so she could hit that particular goal sooner than predicted.
As for assists and 3-pointers, Clark has everything she needs to meet both challenges around the same time frame (and when it comes to those 3s, it could be even sooner than we think).