For years, the WNBA had the talent. It had stars who could fill arenas, veterans who had built the league from the ground up, and a product that had been getting better season by season long before Caitlin Clark arrived. So what changed after Clark was not necessarily what was happening on the court, but how many people suddenly started paying attention to it. And that distinction is at the heart of Sophie Cunningham’s latest take on Clark’s influence.

During the debut episode of No Hesitation, Cunningham acknowledged that the WNBA office deserves some credit for the league’s growth. But, in her view, the biggest catalyst was much more obvious.

“I was like, ‘Oh, okay. Yeah, you can maybe give credit to the WNBA office.’ But at the end of the day, it was pretty much Caitlin and the players,” Cunningham said on No Hesitation. “I should not get in trouble for knowing the obvious. I think that you use that for your benefit. Like it is so obvious, and that doesn’t mean there wasn’t greatness before her. It’s just like that’s when our game really started to go global,” she further added.

It is a blunt assessment, especially considering how much the league has changed over the last few years. The WNBA entered 2024 already carrying momentum from record-breaking seasons, but Clark’s arrival took the conversation to another level. The league recorded its highest attendance in 26 years – 2,353,735 attendees – during the 2024 season, while viewership and digital engagement also reached new heights.

Clark’s rookie season produced league records for assists, while the Fever set a franchise attendance record with more than 340,000 fans attending their home games in 2024. And as the league moves through its 2026 season, that momentum has never stopped.

Players have signed a new CBA, where top players can earn up to $1.4 million, while the league expanded into Toronto with the Tempo and is preparing for a 50-game regular season beginning in 2027, up from 44 games.

Sophie Cunningham has played alongside some of the greatest players in WNBA history, including Diana Taurasi, whom she has called the GOAT. So she knows firsthand that the league did not suddenly produce elite basketball when Caitlin Clark entered it. A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Taurasi, and countless others had already laid the foundation of the league we see today.

So her point is that Clark became the spark that pushed the league’s existing talent into a much larger spotlight—and, in her view, there is little reason to shy away from acknowledging that. But bringing a much larger audience to the league is only part of the equation. The bigger question is what the WNBA did with that attention once it arrived.

That conversation becomes especially relevant with Cathy Engelbert set to leave her position as commissioner at the end of 2026. As the league prepares for its next chapter, the question is no longer simply how to grow the WNBA. It is also about how the league chooses to embrace the forces that helped drive that growth. And that includes its biggest star, as Clark is still one of the league’s most prolific scorers, averaging 22.5 points per game.

Christine Brennan, author of ‘On Her Game: Caitlin Clark‘, made that point following the announcement of Engelbert’s departure, arguing that the next commissioner should be willing to acknowledge what Cunningham described as “the obvious.”

“With the news that Cathy Engelbert is retiring as WNBA commissioner (scoop by @alexaphilippou), there now is a great opportunity to bring in a commissioner who acknowledges the obvious (Clark’s greatness and popularity) and doesn’t try to minimize or hide it. Hire that person,” Brennan wrote on X.

The WNBA does not have to choose between recognizing everything that came before Caitlin Clark and acknowledging what changed once she arrived. The two can exist at the same time. So how the league handles that reality could shape its next chapter.