The WNBA is in the midst of a boom period in nationwide and even global popularity. A driving force behind that increase in interest has been the meteoric rise in prominence of former Iowa Hawkeyes and current Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark.
It's often difficult to pinpoint what makes someone so appealing when they seemingly become famous overnight, but WNBA legend and five-time Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird has the answer.
Bird recently appeared on, "Good Game with Sarah Spain," produced by iHeartPodcasts, as part of the company's new Women's Sports Audio Network. She spoke candidly about how Clark brings something entertaining to an audience of casual viewers who previously perceived the WNBA as boring.
More specifically, Bird discussed how Clark has offered the perfect response to the ridiculous criticism facing the WNBA for the lack of dunks.
"From a basketball standpoint, I think Caitlin in particular, her long distance threes. I always said this, we finally got the antidote to dunking. All we heard our entire existence was, ‘you guys are boring. You don't dunk. Oh, maybe you should lower the rims. It would be more exciting.’ And the thing about the long three is it is what it is. The distance is the distance, it goes in or it doesn't. It's the same for everybody. So in a sense, I think she snapped people out of this trance that was very negative towards women's basketball and now she's brought this huge group."
It's a compelling point that may answer the question of why Clark has been able to captivate fans in such a sudden and revolutionary manner.
Sue Bird calls Caitlin Clark the antidote to, "You don't dunk," narrative
It's been a longstanding issue in the eyes of casuals or even non-viewers that the WNBA generally plays its game below the rim. It doesn't matter to those critics if the skill level is otherwise impressive, or if the competitiveness and physicality of the game offer significant reason for intrigue.
The fact that the WNBA hasn't yet produced a human highlight reel of a dunk artist has long been utilized as ammunition by those who seek to discredit the league at large.
Clark has provided an answer to that critique by creating electric environments with her handle and jump shot. It's not entirely dissimilar to how Stephen Curry, who has spent the entirety of his career as a below-the-rim finisher, became one of the faces of the league while LeBron James was slamming home tomahawk dunks.
Much as Curry's rise to fame began in college with the Davidson Wildcats, Clark's transpired at the University of Iowa—and has continued in the WNBA.
Clark, along with Chicago Sky star Angel Reese, is one of the two frontrunners for the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year award. It's fitting considering the on-court rivalry between Clark and Reese was one of the driving forces behind women's basketball achieving new heights of popularity.
In terms of what Clark has done individually this season, she's continued the trend of producing nightly highlights and mind-blowing statistics as a scorer and facilitator.
Clark ranks No. 1 in the WNBA in assists per game at 8.2 and No. 3 in total three-point field goals made at 71. She's also 13th in the league in scoring at 17.1 points per contest, with marks of 5.8 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 0.8 blocks rounding out her absurd season averages.
There continue be critics who seek to discredit the WNBA, but as Bird mentioned, Clark is providing a powerful response to the notion that the league is boring because of a lack of dunks.