In a recent interview with Chinese YouTuber Telfair Tong, Caitlin Clark sat down to reflect on how far women's basketball has come and how much further it can still go. 

Tong, who called Caitlin Clark “the face of the WNBA”, ended his interview with a question that asked her about what came next for women’s basketball and why seeing the game up close mattered. 

"I think just like more and more opportunities and that's exactly what's happening because there's gonna be more and more young girls that love basketball or love another sport, and believe that they can be really good at it. I think it kind of starts with the stage that I'm playing on right now. The more we can be on TV. The more people can come and watch us and buy a ticket. Or we can go to places like China or wherever it's at globally to help grow the game."

Well, in 2024, the WNBA broke viewership records with Caitlin Clark joining the league. And most expected those numbers to fall in 2025 with Clark injured.

However, that's where the big shock came. Even without Clark, viewership was up by 6% (1.3 million) in the regular season and 5% (1.2 million viewers) in the postseason. And that's not all.

Unrivaled is returning for its second season, and there's talk of Project B. The league could provide a bigger stage for women's basketball with higher salaries for players taking place all across the world.

And Caitlin Clark is setting the stage

Clark's Nike campaign certainly adds weight to her words. On Christmas Day, Nike revealed Clark's first signature advertisement. What was even more impressive was the cast of people in the ad.

Names like Travis Scott, Travis Kelce and his brother Jason, as well as their Iowa State coach, Lisa Bluder, were all involved in the ad.

And it comes on the back of a major Nike-Clark announcement from earlier this year. They revealed interlocking 'Cs', the logo of Clark's brand with Nike. Could we see Nike release Caitlin Clark-themed shoes soon?

Written by

Fatema Kapasi

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar