Caitlin Clark made her WNBA debut this past week. In the aftermath, the sports world’s newest lightning rod has generated a glut of discourse. As steam picked up towards the weekend, that discourse didn’t hold up.
Clark and the Indiana Fever have a heck of a start to their season. They’ve already played the Connecticut Sun and New York Liberty, and the Fever are bound to play both again in wraparound matchups this weekend and early next week.
The Sun and the Liberty are two of the WNBA’s best teams. The Liberty are a stacked group featuring MVP Breanna Stewart, the great Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones, among others. Meanwhile, the Sun boast DiJonai Carrington, who had an MVP-caliber season in 2023.
Not surprisingly, the Fever, who owned the top pick in the WNBA Draft, are off to an 0-2 start. That start hasn’t deterred interest too much early on. But, in Colin Cowherd’s mind, some damage could be done. So, in turn, Cowherd thinks the WNBA has but one option: Make the game easier for Clark… by “making it work.”
“The 28th year of the WNBA… they have never had a player either good enough or interesting enough to drive marketing, revenue, and TV ratings so that the entire league can fly private. They fly commercial like the rest of us,” Cowherd said. “That doesn’t mean there haven’t been good players, very good players.
“But Caitlin Clark, who’s never played until a week ago in a WNBA game, is the first player that appears they’re banking on her. And I say banking literally. They’re literally going now to private flights for two years. The money they’re gonna spend on that is more than the WNBA payroll.
“So they finally have this moment… Don’t put Caitlin Clark up in the first four games against New York twice and Connecticut twice,” he said, noting they were the league’s best defensive teams.
“Get Messi paid. Get Beckham to LA. Get Caitlin Clark an easy schedule.”
— @ColinCowherd pic.twitter.com/Yl8Em5hDGY
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) May 17, 2024
Cowherd then connected to the NFL, who gave new head coach Jim Harbaugh’s Los Angeles Chargers an easy road to start (in his eyes). He also noted that Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears won’t play the Green Bay Packers until Week 11. In Cowherd’s eyes, that was done to “get Williams’ sea legs under him,” obviously implying that the bar was set lower.
Then, Cowherd connected to MLS, who he said compares closer to the W than the NFL, who “made sure David Beckham got to Los Angeles.” Beckham, the famed soccer player, played for the Los Angeles Galaxy after he arrived to the United States in the early 2000s. Then he mentioned Lionel Messi, who’s been a success in Miami.
“David Beckham got to LA, Messi got to Miami … make it work,” Cowherd said.
The comparisons weren’t done, as Cowherd then compared Clark’s initial situation to that of Tiger Woods’ and the NFL, who had to deal with “the catch rule.” Then, in the Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots, “they changed the catch rule” during the game.
“I don’t know if they have to change the trade rules, if they have to get her better players, lighten up the schedule, but this is the 28th year. This is the first player that is driving revenue and interest so that the Draft for the WNBA tripled the WNBA Finals. Tripled it! That’s insane!
“I watched it! I could barely tolerate the NBA-I don’t know if I’ll watch it this year. I don’t know who the players are! Sometimes you have to get stuff done.
“Get Messi paid, get Beckham to LA, get Caitlin Clark an easy schedule.”
Cowherd called on the WNBA to “help her out” and to “make it work.” Granted, this is still a team that picked first in this year’s WNBA Draft, so even with the superstar Clark, and notable players like Aliyah Boston among others, the team was likely to face some obstacles.
Same with the sensational Clark, who is making the transition from college to the pros. It’s not an easy one by any means either. Even if the difficulty level was “raised.”
