No sports league revolves around just one player—but in the case of Caitlin Clark, it’s hard to ignore the impact. As WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert herself admitted, “No league is ever about one player, but in this case, Caitlin brought tens of millions of new viewers into the W.” So, it is fair to say that Caitlin Clark is one of the most popular athletes in America, and a definite household name. But with that surge in popularity has come a new problem for the WNBA: specific overexposure.

The league has heavily spotlighted Clark, broadcasting her every move, challenge, and achievement. Not to mention, when the narrative of Reese vs Clark came up again, the media and the W cashed in as much as possible. Shockingly enough, the CC vs Reese narrative made up about 78% of the WNBA preseason coverage! Now, with both teams set to face off at least four more times, some analysts worry it’s coming at the cost of broader, more balanced coverage of the league as a whole. And for what? For the sake of a short-term viewership.

On The Ringer WNBA Show, the show host Seerat Sohi called this Fever-Sky matchup an ‘appointment viewing’, and mentioned how some other matchups would make more sense. “I’d much rather watch the Sky face off against the Aces and A’ja Wilson,” she said, mentioning the front-court battles that are bound to take place, yet with barely any hype.

And to be fair, the battles between A’ja Wilson and Angel Reese are fun to watch, and the viewers agree as the Aces v Sky matchup drew a whopping 1.3 million viewers last season! Wilson’s impeccable offensive bag going against Reese’s rebounding brilliance and determination will always draw eyeballs. However, their matchup will have to wait until August, as Caitlin Clark takes center stage for now. But it’s not hard to understand the logic behind it.

That said, Sohi’s critique went deeper, pointing to a more systemic issue: Why are so many other talented players being sidelined? The show host was candid while probing around and asking questions about these decisions. “Is it a lack of faith in the product to stand on its own?” She asked. “Which is a much larger and also wrong-headed issue considering how much the game is growing even beyond Clark.” Yep, she is talking about the forced ‘rivalry’ narrative being shoved down everyone’s throats despite being denied by the players themselves–constructed perfectly to get the many clicks as possible. Seerat Sohi doubled down on why this will hurt the WNBA in the long run, saying, “It is a disservice to the players and actively hinders the growth of the game.”  

However, if you look at how college basketball people thought about it back in March of this year, it is clear that there will be a boatload of criticisms, but the league or the media are not going to change their approach anytime soon. Even the point person for ESPN’s women’s basketball coverage, Meg Aronowitz, did sound a bit meh about it.

“It is extremely healthy where women’s college basketball is, but it would take a miracle for the women’s title game to get 19 million viewers again,” said Aronowitz. “It’s not beyond reason for it to get 12 (million) if we get the right teams, the right momentum and the right storylines. What we are going to do is make sure that as the audience grows with us from the Selection Show through Tampa, we keep the audience engaged as long as we possibly can”. 

Read that “as long as we possibly can”? Yeah, that says a lot. College basketball is looking to pull out all the stops. And we hope when she says “right storylines,” it doesn’t mean the forced ones. Meanwhile, Clark is not stopping, and the WNBA can probably thank her with a higher paycheck.

Caitlin Clark earned praise from the NBA after explosive season-openers

Regardless of what any analyst might or might not say, Caitlin Clark has earned every inch of what has been given to her so far. The Indiana Fever star’s achievements speak for themselves, and it seems like every week, she does something new and exciting to capture the eyes of the public. 

Like during her first two WNBA games this year, Caitlin Clark showed no signs of weakness at all. The six-foot-tall point guard put up consecutive 20+ points and 10+ assist games in a row, and broke a lot of records. Her success caught the eyes of the NBA, which ended up commending Clark. The NBA gave a shout-out to the Fever point guard on their X account. “SUPERSTAR SHOWING FROM CAITLIN CLARK.” 

And it is not like she is just receiving praise from the NBA, she is setting standards even in the men’s world.

After the Indiana Pacers’ Game 5 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Playoffs, Isiah Thomas, a Hall of Fame star himself, compared Tyrese Haliburton to Clark. “When he walked in, I said, ‘He’s walking in like Caitlin Clark,‘” Thomas said. “This is a Caitlin Clark-type of game – spreading the floor, right? Shooting it from way out there.” He even said that Haliburton is probably a fan of the Fever star. “I think Haliburton watching Caitlin. I see a lot of her game in his game right now.”

It will be interesting to see how Caitlin Clark’s performances unfold over the coming season. The Indiana Fever star has been amazing this year, at least so far, and there are extremely high expectations for her to take over and compete at an MVP level. Will she be able to do it? Only time will tell.