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The key to leveling the playing field for female athletes by generating a more equal media presence calls for greater advertising in superstar female athletes like Caitlin Clark, just on the same scale as you would afford male athletes like Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes.
Several upcoming female athletes carry the potential to be transformative game-breakers in their respective sports. Currently, the most obvious athlete who has this potential is Caitlin Clark, star Indiana Fever guard poised and former Iowa Hawkeye phenom. Clark first displayed this potential during her career as a college athlete where she cemented her name amongst the greatest college athletes of all time. Let’s throw back to see how marvelous she actually was.
In college, many compared her ability to the transcendent Stephen Curry, widely regarded as the most “impactful” basketball player of all time for his exceptional shooting (Morse, 2021). Clark’s name was drawn alongside Curry’s for one specific reason – shooting. Stephen A. Smith, ESPN’s talk show crown jewel declared Clark as the "Steph Curry of women's basketball", underscoring her exceptional talent and skill level (Achenbach, 2023). More than talk show hosts, Clark’s college trainer, Kevin O’Hare, got more specific and said to The Athletic, “I would compare her to Steph [...] in how far out she shoots, her release, how good she is with the ball in her hands to create stuff” (Pickman, 2023). The comparisons speak to the so called “eye-test” but what story do the numbers tell? It might surprise you
Though Curry was a veteran pro athlete while Clark was a collegiate athlete, her three-point shooting stats eclipsed those of every sharpshooter on the planet, both male and female. Other comparisons that were proposed included famous sharpshooters Damian Lillard and Sabrina Ionescu; however, Clark’s shooting statistics in college were already better than both Lillard and Ionescu. Caitlin Clark shot 40.5% in the 25-30 ft range, far beyond the collegiate three-point line, compared to Curry’s 42%, Lillard’s 38.5%, and Ionescu’s 32.9% in that range. On early shot clock attempts, Clark averaged 5.09 3-point attempts per game and made 2.5 on average. Curry averaged 5.2 attempts and made the same 2.5 average whereas Lillard only averaged 4.5 attempts and made 1.5 shots per game. For catch-and-shoot threes, Clark made 41% compared to Steph’s 41.6% and Dame’s 36.2%. Amazingly though, Clark improved in every shooting metric from 2022-23 to 2023-24, suggesting that she still had room for improvement (Pickman, 2023).
So much attention was paid to Clark’s shooting ability, perhaps underrating her other abilities as an overall basketball player. SportsKeeda did a statistical analysis between Clark and Curry, noting that although Curry had a slight shooting advantage, “Clark's scoring average of 28.1 points per game beat Curry's solid 25.4 points per game.” From a passing perspective, “her 8.0 assists per game significantly beat Curry's 3.7 apg” (Cox, 2024). Comparisons beyond Curry almost don’t fit Clark given that her shooting numbers already far surpass other widely regarded superstar basketball players like Damian Lillard and Sabrina Ionescu, evidencing her potential to truly break out in the WNBA.
Off the court, Clark was a trailblazer as well. She broke the NCAA records for three pointers made, points scored, and attended two national championship games in consecutive Big 10 championship seasons. She took the world by storm from a viewership and sponsorship perspective – yielding praise from NBA icon LeBron James and three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes. They spoke on not only the quality of Clark’s game but also her mental fortitude and intangible athletic capabilities (MarcaTV, 2024). Curry – the infamous comparison – noted that Clark’s abilities are “special” (Peterson, 2024).
One metric that’s less talked about but equally shocking is how successful she was from an advertising perspective in college. Clark’s had NIL deals with Nike, Gatorade, State Farm, Buick, HyVee, H&R Block, Topps, Shoot-A-Way, Bose, and Goldman Sachs (Donald, 2024). This was all months before she put on her Indiana Fever jersey.
Time flies by and so do some of the greatest moments in sports. It’s lovely to take a retrospective viewpoint at greatness that might have otherwise not been appreciated the same way. The argument for Caitlin Clark to be the best college athlete of all time is certainly there to be made. Her fans wish her nothing but the same for her WNBA career as well!
References
Morse, B. (2021, December 15). Steph Curry: How Golden State Warriors star “revolutionized” the NBA. CNN; CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/14/sport/steph-curry-ray-allen-three-point-record-spt-intl/index.html
Achenbach, E. (2023, November 10). Iowa’s Caitlin Clark gets Stephen Curry comparison from Stephen A. Smith. ClutchPoints | NCAA Basketball News; ClutchPoints. https://clutchpoints.com/iowa-womens-basketball-news-caitlin-clark-stephen-curry-comparison-stephen-a-smith
Pickman, B. (2023). Their lights stay green: Comparing the shooting prowess of Caitlin, Steph, Dame and Sabrina. The Athletic. https://theathletic.com/5149685/2023/12/20/caitlin-clark-steph-curry-3-pointers-basketball/
Cox, J. (2024, February 11). Caitlin Clark vs. Steph Curry statistical comparison: H2H college stats, prominent records, notable achievements and more. Sportskeeda.com; Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/college-basketball/news-caitlin-clark-vs-steph-curry-h2h-college-stats-prominent-records-notable-achievements
MarcaTV. (2024, February 19). LeBron James compares Caitlin Clark to the best scorers in the NBA. MarcaTV; Marca. https://videos.marca.com/v/0_3ii788p4-lebron-james-compares-caitlin-clark-to-the-best-scorers-in-the-nba?count=0
Peterson, C. (2024, February 16). Caitlin Clark’s game is often compared to Steph Curry’s. He says, “Caitlin is special.” The Indianapolis Star; Indianapolis Star. https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/basketball/wnba/fever/2024/02/16/steph-curry-on-caitlin-clark-scoring-record-caitlin-is-special-iowa-womens-basketball-wnba-fever/72602116007/
Donald, R. (2024, January 18). A look at Caitlin Clark’s NIL deals from Nike to Gatorade and many more. Yahoo Sports; Yahoo Sports. https://sports.yahoo.com/look-caitlin-clark-nil-deals-135031595.html?guccounter=1