new book How seismic Caitlin Clark’s impact on sports is

On the night of April 19, 2024, I argued with one of my childhood guy friends. It was a few days after Caitlin Clark had been drafted first overall by the Indiana Fever.

He predicted her star would wane after entering the WNBA. Or more specifically he said: “no one will give an f—k about Clark in a year.”

I told him he had rocks in his head, as another friend watching made a note in his calendar.

On April 19, that other friend sent us both a reminder to check in on our debate, a year on. I smugly proclaimed victory.

Everyone still gave a f—k about Caitlin Clark: her legions of fans, the city of Indianapolis, where Clarkmania brought in an estimated $36 million, and especially her haters. Even Shane Gillis recently told Flagrant podcast that he was “starstruck” when Clark came to his show in Indiana.

A year on, the basketball world is still spinning on her axis and she’s transformed the landscape of women’s athletics — the way Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods did in their respective sports.

All the proof is in Christine Brennan’s new book, “On Her Game” which chronicles the rise of Clark from an Iowa-grown phenom to WNBA megastar.

The veteran sportswriter was drawn to the project because Clark continuously grabbed national headlines, even more than her male peers. In fact, she notes that the women’s 2024 NCAA final pitting Iowa against South Carolina drew four million more viewers than the men’s Final the next night.

“That’s a sentence I never thought I would write. Women’s college basketball being more popular than men’s college basketball? In 21st-century America? How was that possible?” wrote Brennen. “The answer was Clark.”

She added that there was “so much to tell.” Indeed, it is a whiplash inducing book.

It’s pretty insane to recap just how much happened to Clark in the span of a year. But also, how much Clark happened to us.

Her impact was immediate. When she arrived in May, the league, which had previously flown commercial, were now given charter flights and many teams moved their Fever match ups to bigger arenas to accommodate the demand when Clark came to town.

Brennan’s book underscores just how uniquely equipped this confident 22-year-old was for this moment. 

The WNBA, however, was not.

Brennan noted that the media covering the league was insular and protective of its status quo, which was majority black, LBGT and hyper focused on social justice.

“When a league is small and often ignored, as the WNBA has been, there can be inclination among some members of the media to want to fight for it and even reluctance to let outsiders in.

“Into this landed Caitlin Clark, a white, straight 22-year-old woman” who hadn’t played a single possession, but was already the face of the league, wrote Brennan.

“To say people were conflicted about it would be an understatement.”

Veteran Diana Taurasi famously told Scott Van Pelt in March of 2024, “reality is coming” for Clark. (By September, Van Pelt noted that Taurasi was wrong and that Clark, who would win rookie of the year and led her team to the playoffs, “was the reality”).

Clark faced many inhospitable veterans. In June, Chicago Sky’s Chennedy Carter hip checked Clark in an outrageous foul that was far from a basketball play.

On Threads, Carter wrote of Clark, “beside three-point shooting what does she bring to the table man?”

Clark took the high road, saying Carter didn’t owe her a public apology. “No, basketball is competitive. I get it.”

Then came her Olympic snub last summer, which Brennan saw as malpractice.

“How did all those skilled basketball minds on the committee miss how good Clark already was — and how well she would be playing by the Olympic break? The answer was becoming clearer by the day: because they wanted to.”

But she was also expected to answer for society’s ills and maybe some nasty things fans of her said on social media — despite loads of ugly race-based insults thrown her way.

In mid-June, Clark was asked by a reporter about people using her name to push agendas.

“People can talk about what they want to talk about… I’m just here to play basketball,” she said, adding she could not control others.

Connecticut Sun’s Dijonai Carrington tweeted, “Dawg. How one can not be bothered by their name being used to justify racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia & the intersectionality of them all is nuts.”

Clark handled a follow up deftly, but a pile on ensued. It showed that the league could be unserious, making hoops an afterthought.

Then in September, Clark caused another uproar by simply liking Taylor Swift’s Instagram endorsement of Kamala Harris.

In December, she was named Time Athlete of the Year. The next month, a man was arrested for stalking her.

The book isn’t full of bombshells, but Brennan is unsparing in her criticism of the league being caught flat-footed by Clark.

She called out WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert who during a “60 Minutes” piece on Clark and the league, refused to give the star sole credit for its insane growth.

Reporter Jon Wertheim pointed out that when she is asked about Clark, she “brings up other rookies as well.”

“No league is ever about one player,” she responded.

Brennan wrote, “By practically any measure, Clark was that one person.”