When Caitlin Clark joined the WNBA, everything was supposed to be about the new age of women’s basketball. Fans wanted to see female hoopers with generational talent compete against each other. But somewhere along the way, it became about everything else. From rivalries and social media battles to culture wars. But things have reached a point where people like Iowa City Press-Citizen columnist Chad Leistikow don’t think things can get fun again.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of people like me. I would love to go back to year one Caitlin Clark WNBA. I had so much fun watching that… I was getting to know a lot of the players back then, but I don’t know what’s going to suck me back in. The discourse is just exhausting,” he said on the latest episode of Iowa Everywhere.

“The rest of us who just came for the pure love of basketball, but instead got ref riff-raff and culture wars. We just want a little fun,” Leistikow recalled, referring to a column by Candice Buckner of The Athletic, which perfectly summed up where he stands.

“A lot of us just came into this wanting to have some fun, and they’ve successfully sucked the fun out of it, and they’re gonna successfully suck fans away from it. If that’s what they wanted, that’s what they’re going to eventually get,” added the WNBA insider.

In her debut season, Caitlin Clark helped the league draw more than 54 million unique viewers across its national broadcast partners, while 22 regular-season broadcasts topped one million viewers.

In May 2025, WCNC reported that the 2024 Rookie of the Year’s popularity boosted WNBA merchandise sales by 500%. However, the honeymoon phase could only last for so long

CC was out for most of 2025 after sustaining a groin injury in July. During that time, she made headlines for arguing with officials, and that hasn’t changed now that she’s back in the paint.

In the 17 games she’s played so far, the 24-year-old has picked up five technical fouls and is three fouls away from a mandatory one-game suspension. She has not backed away from protesting those calls in and out of the paint.

Now, after the Alyssa Thomas contact incident happened on June 24, the attention once again shifted away from the game. Instead, it became another league-wide debate over officiating, player safety, online comments, and the WNBA’s handling of the fallout.

Through it all, Caitlin Clark has largely maintained the same stance that she wants to focus on basketball. Now, with CC currently sidelined with a back injury she sustained during that Mercury game, only time will tell if she can bring that excitement back for the rest of the 2026 season.