NEW YORK — Caitlin Clark is officially a pro.
Clark, the record-breaking face of women’s college basketball, was selected No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA draft Monday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
“I got a little anxious there before the pick,” Clark said with a laugh during an interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment since I was in second grade … more than anything, trying to soak it in.”
Stanford’s Cameron Brink was the second player off the board, going to the Los Angeles Sparks. Chicago had the third pick, which the Sky used to select Kamilla Cardoso of South Carolina.
Clark, a 6-foot-0 guard and West Des Moines, Iowa, native enters the league on top of the world. A two-time national player of the year, Clark ended her collegiate career with 3,951 points, the most in men’s and women’s Division I history, while propelling the Iowa Hawkeyes to back-to-back national title game appearances, their first in program history.
Her logo 3-pointers, highlight-reel assists and offensive firepower (she averaged 31.6 points per game as a senior, and 28.4 points for her career) have drawn sellout crowds in Iowa City and on the road, while shattering television ratings across a multitude of television networks and streaming platforms along the way.
She has her own cereal box, State Farm commercials and just this past weekend appeared as herself on “Saturday Night Live.” Now, her biggest challenge, and biggest opportunity, awaits.
“I earned it, that’s why I’m so proud of it,” Clark told Rowe.
The Fever haven’t appeared in the playoffs since 2016, the legendary Tamika Catchings’ final season. But with Clark joining forces with last year’s No. 1 overall pick in Aliyah Boston, the pairing of generational powers seems destined to change the trajectory of the franchise — and possibly the league — for the years to come.
Winners of the 2012 WNBA title, Indiana has languished since Catchings’ retirement, sporting the worst winning percentage in the league since the start of the 2017 season despite selecting lottery picks in each of the last seven drafts. Four of those seven picks are no longer with the team.
Signs of progress emerged this past season with Boston, the franchise’s first-ever No. 1 pick, in tow, as they won 13 games, tied for the most since Catchings’ retirement. With Clark now in the mix, it seems well within reach for the franchise to snap what is currently the league’s longest active streak missing the playoffs.
Clark, the only Division I women’s player with more than 3,000 points and 1,000 assists, will have two similarly young but elite post targets in Boston, the reigning rookie of the year, and NaLyssa Smith, a 2022 lottery pick. After Clark developed strong chemistry with Iowa posts Monika Czinano and Hannah Stuelke, the connections she, Boston and Smith can form in Indianapolis are tantalizing prospects for Fever fans.
Clark will also share the backcourt with two veteran guards in Kelsey Mitchell, No. 4 on the NCAA Division I all-time scoring list and a top 3-point shooter in the league last season, as well as returning point guard Erica Wheeler.
