Caitlin Clark selected by Indiana Fever with top pick in WNBA draft - The Washington Post

NEW YORK — NCAA championship game. “Saturday Night Live.” The “Today” show.

Such was the whirlwind of the past eight days for Caitlin Clark leading up to Monday’s WNBA draft at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Now, college basketball’s all-time leading scorer officially has a new home that’s not far from the homes she has known her entire life. The West Des Moines, Iowa, native — a star for the past four years at the University of Iowa — was selected by the Indiana Fever with the No. 1 pick.

The Clark effect, which helped produce the two most-watched women’s college basketball games ever, is already being felt across the league. The national broadcast schedule features 36 of the Fever’s 40 games — and Indiana hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2016. The average ticket price to see the Fever in 2024 has more than doubled, according to Vivid Seats.

“We haven’t seen a player drive ticket sales like this,” ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said last week. “We haven’t seen a player drive ratings like this. … One of the things that’s kind of special about it is that she’s staying in the Midwest, going to Indiana. It’s such a perfect fit in terms of that.

“The hero of the heartland is going to be staying there and leading this team. But in terms of attention, we’ve never, ever, ever seen anything like this.”

Clark, meanwhile, will pair in Indiana with the 2023 No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston, who was named rookie of the year and made the All-Star Game. Clark and Boston seem to be — at least on paper — a perfect combination. Boston is a 6-foot-5 center with soft hands and supreme footwork, and she gets a 6-foot point guard with elite vision and passing ability on top of shooting range that begins at half-court. They could be a high-level inside-out combination for years to come.

Clark took home nearly every individual accolade a player could win, including two national player of the year awards and first-team all-American honors the past three years. In her regular season home finale, she surpassed Pete Maravich to become the highest-scoring collegiate player in history, men’s or women’s.

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