There seems to be no consensus in the basketball world on whether Caitlin Clark is the ‘face of the WNBA’ or not. NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gave a fiery take on Clark after her on-court reaction against a refereeing call in the Fever’s match against the Golden State Valkyries. During his verdict, Jabbar rejected the proposition that Clark is the face of the league. Now ex-NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho has revealed why he agrees with the 6-time NBA champion.
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“I agree wholeheartedly [with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar] because at the end of the day, he didn’t say that Caitlin Clark did anything wrong. What Kareem is saying is that to utter somebody who is currently a good to really good player as the face of the league is a disservice to the great players, to the A’ja Wilsons,” Acho said in the Speakeasy podcast.
“In the NBA, you would never call a third-team All-NBA player the face of
the league. In the NFL, you would never call a Pro Bowler who isn’t an All-Pro the face of the league. In tennis, Serena became the face because she is one of the winningest tennis players of all time… But for several reasons in the W, we utter that Caitlin Clark is the face, yet she is not one of the winningest or greatest yet in this short-lived career.”
Acho explained that since the WNBA doesn’t have the legacy yet, they’ve allowed Clark to “jump the line.”
The WNBA’s popularity did rise exponentially with the 24-year-old guard’s arrival. In 2024, the then-rookie helped the W average 657,000 viewers, which was the highest in 24 years. A record 22 games averaged over a million viewers, and fans labeled it the ‘Caitlin Clark Effect.’
The effect was on display once again when Clark returned from a minor back injury against the Los Angeles Sparks on July 8. Averaging 1.04 million viewers, it became the most-watched WNBA game in USA Network’s history.
Clark has also continued to set new benchmarks. She just became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 600 assists, doing it in 72 games and shattering Ticha Penicheiro’s record of 81 games. Earlier in the season, she set the record for the longest 20+ Point, 5+ assist streak, scoring 20+ points and dishing out 5+ assists in six consecutive games.
She has been named an All-Star starter for the third consecutive season. She is averaging 20.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 7.8 assists per game this season. She is second in the league in assists per game, behind only Alyssa Thomas. However, she remains without a WNBA Championship.
With a 14-10 record, Indiana remains in playoff contention and will look to answer their critics by finally winning the championship. They have the core for it in Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, and Aliyah Boston.