2024 Newsmaker of the Year: Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark

Fever’s overall No. 1 pick is an even bigger sensation than predicted

Since the Indiana Fever drafted her with the No. 1 overall pick, basketball sensation Caitlin Clark has transformed not just Indiana’s WNBA team but the league itself.

Clark, a point guard, came to Indianapolis from the University of Iowa as one of women’s basketball’s most popular players—even before she put on a WNBA uniform.

And once she did, she drove attendance in Indiana and every place she played to levels not seen in 22 years—all while piling up rookie and non-rookie records as a player.

Clark won the AP’s and the league’s Rookie of the Year awards after breaking the WNBA single-season record with 337 assists, including a league-record 19 in one game. She broke the single-season rookie scoring mark by averaging 19.2 points per game. She became the first WNBA rookie to ever record a triple-double—and she did it twice.

Her 122 3-pointers—the second-most by anyone in any WNBA season—was another rookie record. Clark had 12 games of at least 10 points and 10 assists, another single-season record.

Along the way, she helped turn the Fever into a winning team. She joined Aliyah Boston, the previous year’s No. 1 overall WNBA draft pick and 2023 Rookie of the Year, and returning All-Star Kelsey Mitchell on a team that hadn’t made the playoffs since 2016. It was a rough start, with the team starting 0-5 as Clark adjusted to the professional game and the team learned to play together.

Clark wasn’t chosen for the U.S. Olympic team, but fans voted her onto the All-Star team, along with Boston and Mitchell. And Clark and the Fever used the break to gel.

They went on an 8-2 run following the Olympic break and finished 20-20 overall, earning a playoff berth for the first time since 2016. The Fever fell to the Connecticut Sun in the first round.

By then, Clark was essentially a household name—not just in Indianapolis but across the country, with fans flocking to Gainbridge Fieldhouse and other teams’ arenas to see her.

The Fever averaged 17,035 for their 20 home games—more than the Pacers did during the 2023-2024 season in which they made a run to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

And every team in the league had higher attendance figures for games in which they played the Fever than they did for non-Fever games. In most cases, the increase was dramatic. The AP’s Tim Reynolds reported that the attendance average for games in which the Fever played was 16,084; non-Fever games averaged 8,552. In fact, Atlanta and Washington moved Fever games to bigger arenas to accommodate the crowds.

Fox executive Michael Mulvihill reported, meanwhile, that games featuring Clark averaged 1.18 million viewers on TV, nearly three times higher than the average for other WNBA games, which drew 394,000 viewers.

The attention had its dark side, as well. Some current and former players expressed frustration about the way some fans and media described Clark’s impact on the league, saying attendance already was on the upswing when Clark joined. And some non-Fever players said they have been harassed by Clark’s fans. But Clark has sought to stay above the fray.

“I think it’s disappointing,” Clark said when reporter James Boyd of The Athletic asked her about some people using her name to perpetuate racism and misogyny. “Everybody in our world deserves the same amount of respect. The women in our league deserve the same amount of respect. … People should not be using my name to push those agendas.”•

Check out more 2024 Newsmakers.