The Caitlin Clark Panic Is Already Overblown

Morgan Wallen exists in the pop culture of 2026; Caitlin Clark plays basketball in what feels like a different year

I’ll admit that I watched Fever-Sparks on Wednesday with greater interest than I maintained for the spectacle of the Pistons choking against the Cavs. I’m just curious about Caitlin Clark, given the promise she holds and how poorly her 13-game sophomore season went. Has her career taken a wrong turn? Is her transcendent moment over?

For now, the answer should be: Hell no.

To quote Ratings Guy Braylon Breeze:

Saturday’s Mercury–Aces game averaged 1.154M viewers on ABC, obviously a fine number, but it lost over half the audience from its lead-in — Wings/Fever — which drew 2.491M.

Caitlin Clark’s still in another hemisphere.

Despite last season’s struggles, Clark remains the WNBA’s main show, to a ludicrous degree.

What remains amusing about Clark existing in another hemisphere is the continued institutional discomfort with that reality.

The Clutch Points basketball account sounded a lot like the WNBA commissioner when it showed a graphic demonstrating that three ESPN WNBA games, all involving Clark’s Fever, had crossed the 2 million viewer threshold. The caption read:

Before 2024, a WNBA regular-season game hadn't crossed the 1 million mark on ESPN in over 15 years.

Now, the top games are consistently clearing 2 million thanks to the likes of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers just to name a few.

Ah yes, the likes of Caitlin Clark are powering interest in the WNBA. And the retweets. And more importantly, the ratings.

There have been a lot of negative rumblings about Clark’s play of late, though. It’s plausible that Paige Bueckers, whose Dallas Wings beat Clark’s Fever in the opener, is simply better. Trashing Clark is now a clear pathway to generating online engagement.