Caitlin Clark was ready to spend her first true offseason since Nov. 2023 relaxing and practicing and taking things slower. After taking Iowa to yet another NCAA Championship and then coming to Indiana as the No. 1 draft pick to eventually go to their first playoffs since 2016 – whew, that was hectic. No wonder she didn’t want to go overseas to play more basketball. But it seems like that might change soon.

A fan account on X posted a screenshot from a Sports Business Journal article by Tom Friend titled, Year-End Awards: Best Sports Business Athlete — Caitlin Clark. Friend talks about CC’s impact on Indiana’s NBA team because no one imagines a WNBA team would ever lead its NBA counterpart. And it’s exactly the spark that the W needs to go international.

“When she played in an Annika Sorenstam golf pro-am in November, she attracted Arnold Palmer-type galleries and signed autographs on hats, T-shirts and bare skin. The WNBA is not oblivious and, according to sources, eventually will schedule a Fever game overseas to capitalize on her Q rating. Privately, the plan is to market the Fever like they’re ‘America’s Team. Which they already are.'”

Looks like Caitlin Clark is going overseas after all! Just this time with a borrowed title because if there is one ‘America’s Team’ sports fans know, it’s the Dallas Cowboys, thanks to the team’s 1978 highlight film.

The narrator, John Facenda, opens with the introduction, “They appear on television so often that their faces are as familiar to the public as presidents and movie stars. They are the Dallas Cowboys, ‘America’s Team.'”

The Cowboys have their own charm, sure, but American football is not as global as basketball. If anyone will be able to carry that title on an international stage, it will be Caitlin Clark’s team; and just because she was not able to go to the Olympics this year, their first stop might even be France! Fans certainly want it.

Just like how No. 22’s allure had a WNBA-record 17,035 fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and averaged 1.178 million TV viewers per game, non-American audiences will flock to stadiums the same way. Does she need the exposure? No. But the WNBA Rookie of the Year can certainly help her league with that.

However, one analyst thinks it will be at the cost of the NBA.

Jason Whitlock places blame on Caitlin Clark for NBA’s sufferings

The 2024 NBA finals had a mere 11.3 million viewers, down from 2023’s 11.64 million. Even all the way back to 2018, the finals averaged 17.65 million. Meanwhile, the 2024 NCAA championship averaged 18.9 million viewers as they watched South Carolina take down Iowa. And it wasn’t even men’s basketball.

Jason Whitlock is convinced it’s Caitlin Clark’s fault. “They’ve lost the plot. They don’t have compelling stories,” Whitlock said. “What they could not anticipate, and I think this is an under-discussed, and it’s new, I wouldn’t even say it’s under-discussed, but people haven’t realized. Caitlin Clark has actually hurt the NBA.”

She’s not the sole reason by any means. The NBA has lost the players it marketed as great – Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, Jayson Tatum, Nikola Jokic, you name it. But fans are certainly losing interest in men’s basketball, fast, whereas the women’s league is finally getting its long overdue attention. And sure, it is in large part thanks to Caitlin Clark!