Indiana Fever

While Caitlin Clark was disappointed to miss out on the 2024 Summer Olympics, the Indiana Fever star wanted to earn a spot on Team USA on merit rather than any off-court benefits her presence would've yielded.

"I don't want to be there because I'm somebody that can bring attention," she said to Time's Sean Gregory. "I love that for the game of women's basketball. But at the same time, I want to be there because they think I'm good enough. I don't want to be some little person that is kind of dragged around for people to cheer about and only watch because I'm sitting on the bench.

"That whole narrative kind of upset me. Because that is not fair. It's disrespectful to the people that were on the team, that had earned it and were really good. And it's also disrespectful to myself. "

Clark's exclusion from the Olympic squad was a contentious call by USA Basketball.

The 6'0" guard had a legendary career at Iowa. She figures to be a fixture on the national team for a decade or more. Putting her on the roster promised even more attention toward Team USA thanks to her massive popularity. And there was precedent for a WNBA rookie making the cut (Candace Parker in 2008 and Breanna Stewart in 2016).

For all of those factors, a large outcry followed her omission.

Clark's performance across the second half of the season only intensified the sense of injustice. She went on to earn first-team All-WNBA honors and finish fourth in the MVP voting.

Still, it's again worth pointing out the evidence from which USA Basketball based its decision at the time.

When the roster was finalized in mid-June, Clark had averaged 16.8 points on 37.3 percent shooting along with 6.3 assists to 5.6 turnovers through 12 games. She simply wasn't performing at an elite level as she adjusted to life in the WNBA.

Thanks to Iowa reaching the 2024 Final Four, Clark also missed Team USA's training camp in April, which was a missed opportunity to showcase her skills directly in front of the coaching staff.

Just as USA Basketball had some compelling reasons to select the 22-year-old, leaving her off was a defensible call.

In the end, it worked out for everyone. The United States went on to win gold in Paris, and it probably wasn't a coincidence that Clark looked refreshed after getting to spend a few weeks not playing basketball.

Time named Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark its "Athlete of the Year" for 2024.

Clark had a debut season to remember. She was the WNBA Rookie of the Year after averaging 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists while helping lead the Fever to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

The 22-year-old also set a number of team and league records while earning All-Star and first-team All-WNBA honors.

Not to mention, Clark spent the first half of 2024 wrapping up her legendary career at Iowa. The Hawkeyes were the runners-up in the NCAA tournament for the second successive season, with the dynamic guard winning every major national player of the year award.

Getting named "Athlete of the Year" by Time is both a reflection of what Clark did on the court along with her impact on women's basketball as a whole.

The sport has been riding a wave for years now. Thanks in part to Clark, the momentum has crested in a big way.

The 2024 Final Four smashed viewership records. Iowa's semifinal and national championship games drew 14.4 million and 18.9 million viewers respectively. The trend carried over to the WNBA, which saw its television ratings and attendances spike.

Clark shouldered higher expectations than perhaps any rookie in WNBA history, and she managed to somehow exceed them. Fans are already waiting to see what she has as a follow-up in 2025.

An autographed mint-condition WNBA rookie card for Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark set records when it sold for $234,850 at auction on Saturday.

That is the highest price ever paid for any Clark or WNBA trading card, and the second-highest sale for any women's sports card, according to Goldin Auctions.

The 1-of-1 2024 Panini Select WNBA Signatures Gold Vinyl card features Clark's signature and has been graded a Gem Mint 10 by PSA.

Bidding began at $10,000. The card received 42 bids before the sale closed on Saturday night.

This is not the first WNBA trading card record Clark has broken following her historic senior season for Iowa and her breakout rookie campaign for the Fever.

In January, a 1-of-1 2022 Bowman University Superfractor card from Clark's rookie college season set a record when it sold for $78,000.

Clark's autographed WNBA draft rookie card upped that record following a September sale for $84,000.

That standard only stood for two weeks before Clark's Panini Instant Rookie of the Year Blue Viper autograph card sold for $97,000 in October.

Tennis legend Serena Williams holds the all-time women's sports card record after an autographed 2003 NetPro card featuring a patch of one of her outfits sold for more than $266,000 in 2022.

The value of Clark's Fever rookie cards could be set to increase as she continues establishing herself in the WNBA after setting the all-time NCAA scoring record in four seasons with Iowa.

After completing the most productive season of any point guard WNBA history, while also breaking the rookie records for points and assists, Clark will enter her second pro season as a potential MVP candidate.

Caitlin Clark's highly-decorated 2024 rookie season proved to be quite lucrative for the Indiana Fever star as well.

According to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico, Clark "generated a record annual payday for a WNBA player of $11.1 million with 99 percent of the total earned off the court."

That included an "estimated $11 million in endorsement earnings" on top of her base salary of $76,535 and bonuses for being an All-WNBA first-team selection ($10,300), the WNBA Rookie of the Year ($5,150), an All-Star selection ($2.575), a WNBA All-Rookie Team selection ($1,500) and reaching the first round of the playoffs ($1,136).

Tennis star Coco Gauff topped the list at $30.4 million in earnings from prize money and endorsements, followed by skier Eileen Gu ($22.1 million) and tennis player Iga Świątek ($21.4 million).

In total, nine of the 15 highest earners in women's sports were tennis players, alongside three golfers (Nelly Korda, Jeeno Thitikul, Lydia Ko) and one gymnast (Simone Biles).

WNBA All-Star Sabrina Ionescu just missed the top-15 cut.

Clark, 22, remains one of the most ascendant young talents in all of sports, and continues to help build what was already a growing rise in popularity for women's basketball. She took the college game by storm at Iowa, helping the Hawkeyes set attendance record, and those frequent sellouts followed her to the Fever.

She is only scratching the surface of her potential on the court, and her earning power should have an equally high ceiling. Clark is not the face of the WNBA just yet, given the immense talent in the league, but she is certainly trending in that direction.

Her modest base salary also brought into more mainstream focus the extreme disparity of pay between the NBA and WNBA. The top overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft, Zaccharie Risacher—far, far less of a household name than Clark—entered the league with a four-year, $57 million contract that is paying him $12.6 million in the 2024-25 season.

Even with endorsements and NIL deals from the end of her college career, Clark didn't match that number in 2024.

The Indiana Fever dropped their 2025 schedule on Monday, with the campaign opening on Saturday, May 17 against the Chicago Sky.

Yes, that means Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese will have the chance to renew their rivalry at the start of the 2025 WNBA season, a must-watch matchup for fans of the sport.

The Fever's 2024 season was an unqualified success.

After drafting Clark No. 1 overall, the team went 20-20 and earned the No. 6 seed in the WNBA playoffs, though they lost to the Connecticut Sun in the first round. No matter—it was the team's first playoff appearance since 2016 and the the Fever set the WNBA's home attendance record. Clark, meanwhile, was named the Rookie of the Year, an All-Star and a first-team All-WNBA selection in just her first season.

The future is bright, in other words, around the duo of Clark and Aliyah Boston, the past two Rookie of the Year winners.

There will be some changes in 2025, however. The team fired head coach Christie Sides after the season, replacing her with former Fever and Sun head coach Stephanie White, while Kelly Krauskopf is returning as president of basketball and business operations after six years with the Indiana Pacers as an assistant general manager.

The team also hired Amber Cox to serve as chief operating officer and general manager, while former GM Lin Dunn was moved into a senior advisory role.

White, in particular, is excited about working with Clark and Boston.

"You've got the point guard and the center... you have the bookends that you want to build around," she told reporters in November. "These two are the best. There's so many things they do well right now. And you saw the difference between the beginning of the season to the end of the season, and how much better they got with one another. When you think about the great point guards and post players that our game—not just our league—has seen, they are going to go down in history as the greatest. And I'm excited about the opportunity to work with them."

Expectations will be sky high for the Fever in 2025. They certainly have not been complacent thus far this offseason.

Caitlin Clark had a chance to kick back and relax at a professional basketball game on Saturday night.

The Indiana Fever guard took in the Golden State Warriors-Phoenix Suns game in Phoenix.

The Suns led the Warriors at halftime and both teams are fighting for positioning within the Western Conference. As Steph Curry and Kevin Durant headlined their team's, Clark was able to soak up the opportunity to be in an arena but not have that pressure.

She just wrapped up her rookie campaign where she took home the WNBA Rookie of the Year award. She averaged 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds in 40 games and also added 18 points, 8.5 assists and five rebounds in two playoff games.

She helped lead Indiana to a 20-20 record and the team reached the postseason for the first time since 2016. The Fever increased their win total by seven games and Clark's presence made them must-see television throughout the season.

This came after a hectic college season that ended in the National Championship Game. She is finally in her well-deserved offseason and taking in some excellent NBA action is a solid way to spend it.

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark is part of the ownership group bidding to bring an NWSL expansion team to Cincinnati, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The NWSL, which has already added Boston as an expansion destination, is planning to add one more team to bring the league to 16 teams. Cincinnati is one of five cities considered to be a finalist for an expansion team.

Cleveland, Denver, Nashville and Philadelphia are the other four teams in the mix for an expansion team. According to ESPN's Jeff Kassouf, the ownership group of MLS' FC Cincinnati is leading the bid.

Cincinnati already has the infrastructure for a team with TQL Stadium, the home of FC Cincinnati, already in existence. Cincinnati's backing from an MLS ownership group also helps its case.

Should Cleveland, Denver or Philadelphia be selected as an expansion team, they would build temporary venues ahead of 2026, when the new teams will make their debuts. According to Kassouf, the group making a bid in Cleveland has already acquired land downtown where a stadium would be built.

Nashville already has a stadium built for soccer where Nashville SC of the MLS plays.

Clark, who was drafted No. 1 overall earlier this year after breaking the NCAA scoring record at Iowa, had an outstanding rookie year, averaging 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game on her way to the Rookie of the Year award. She was also the first rookie since Candace Parker in 2008 to make the All-WNBA First Team.

Now in the WNBA's offseason, Clark seems to be staying busy as she tries to get Cincinnati a new soccer team.

Caitlin Clark is hitting the links this week at The Annika Pro-Am at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.

While she's a competitive player on the basketball court, she's a little more laid-back on the course, as evidenced by her reaction to this errant tee shot.

One fan collected quite the souvenir:

The Annika is named after and hosted by golf legend Annika Sörenstam. The Swede won 10 major tournaments across her career and has the third-most victories (72) in LPGA history.

Clark met with Sörenstam for the event and called her "one of those trailblazers" for women's sports writ large.

The Fever's season ended on Sept. 25, when they were swept out of the first round of the WNBA playoffs by the Connecticut Sun. In her postgame press conference, Clark told reporters she intended to play a lot of golf during her offseason.

The 2024 WNBA All-Star said to Big Ten Network in 2023 that her passion for the sport dates back to her childhood, when she'd play in her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. She previously showed off her skills in the 2023 John Deere Classic Pro-Am.

Clark's invitation to The Annika was another sign of how quickly her star has risen. She became a household name at Iowa, and her profile only grew further in her first professional season.

The 22-year-old averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists en route to the Rookie of the Year award and a fourth-place finish in the MVP voting. Few rookies have ever arrived in the WNBA with more hype, and she managed to exceed expectations.

Given both Clark's popularity and her love of golf, The Annika probably won't be the last time fans get to watch her step up to the tee box.

Caitlin Clark's motivations as a basketball player aren't terribly complicated.

"I think wanting to be the best," she said Tuesday at THE ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. "I don't want anyone to be better than me. In whatever it is. I just want to be better than everybody else. And I think I'm very real with myself, too. Like I know when I maybe haven't done my best in something, and I'm going to be the first person to look in the mirror and know what I need to get better at. So those two things, that's what helps me."

Clark has a long way to go before she'll be the best player in the WNBA, but she's already been the best rookie after averaging 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds this past season, leading the Indiana Fever to the playoffs in the process.

After a historic college career and a fantastic debut season in the WNBA, Clark seems poised for superstardom. And she seemingly has the drive to make her ambitions of one day being the best basketball player alive a potential reality.

Caitlin Clark was seen at Taylor Swift's Eras Tour show at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Friday night.

The Indiana Fever guard wrote that she was "fired up" to see Swift in an Instagram story post from inside the venue.

The 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year is a well-known fan of the 14-time Grammy Award-winning musician. She previously welcomed Swift to the Kansas City Chiefs' fanbase after she started a relationship with star tight end Travis Kelce in Sept. 2023.

Clark is coming off an incredible inaugural season in the WNBA, leading the Fever to their first playoff appearance since 2016. She averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game while shooting 41.7 percent from the field and 34.4 percent on threes.

She ended the regular season with 769 total points, setting a new rookie scoring record. She also racked up 337 assists, representing the highest single-season total in WNBA history. Her 122 total three-point field goals also became a new record among rookies.

Clark has already been putting in offseason work ahead of her sophomore season, as she hit 25 consecutive three-pointers during an October workout.

She took some time out of her schedule to see Swift perform on Friday night, though.