To nobody’s surprise, the Indiana Fever selected the most popular women’s basketball player in the country with the No. 1 pick in Monday night’s 2024 WNBA Draft, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.
Indiana got lucky last year with Aliyah Boston and they got lucky again, earning a shot at picking the back-to-back Naismith College Player of the Year. Now, lets see if they’ll be able to build a winning franchise.
Indiana is ready for the Caitlin Clark Effect
In a media call preceding the draft, nobody was taking into account any other possibility: Caitlin Clark had to be the first overall pick of the draft. ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo was talking about the selection as if it was a done deal:
We haven’t seen a player drive the ticket sales like this. Drive the ratings like this. She’s staying in the Midwest, going to Indiana, it’s such a perfect fit. The hero of the heartland is going to be staying there.
And who could doubt her? Even if Clark’s impact on the court is limited, as she’ll need some time to adjust to playing against physically tougher, more experienced opponents, Clark’s rookie year will be one of the most dominant narratives of the upcoming season. The response to her arrival in Indiana already has been overwhelming. According to StubHub spokesperson…
