Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark is the most marketable player in WNBA history. Since entering the league in the 2024 draft, Clark has brought record numbers in television ratings and game attendance to the WNBA. It’s rare for someone with less than three years of experience to have this kind of star power, and questions have been raised about how fair it is to the league’s other stars that Clark is often featured as the focal point of the league.
However, former ESPN anchor Linda Cohn believes highlighting Clark is advantageous for the WNBA’s success.
“The NBA hierarchy back in the day, in the ’80s, saw what they had in Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and they didn’t say, Oh, we’re talking about them too much; we better stop promoting them,” Cohn said. “They didn’t go by that philosophy that the WNBA does, and look at the NBA; all it did was lead to their explosive popularity…And same, the pattern with Michael Jordan and all the stars that followed after Bird and Magic.”
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Cohn went on to criticize WNBA media tactics.
“The WNBA and some of the media surrounding the WNBA gets this completely backwards…You don’t promote other stars instead of Caitlin Clark you promote other stars through Caitlin Clark… Because whether people like it or not, Caitlin Clark brought an enormous new audience to the WNBA.”
“They still fight it and try to elevate lesser players.”
Her comments received several responses, mainly in agreement,
“Linda.. I think there’s a lot of us that couldn’t name even a single player in the WNBA 5 years ago.. if they did this right, the WNBA would be as popular as the NBA,” said one fan via X.
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“It’s been almost 2 full seasons of CC, they still fight it and try to elevate lesser players via agenda,” mentioned another on YouTube.
“You’re so right about promoting the whole league through it’s biggest star(s). It’s just like what Gretzky’s greatness did to help the growth of the NHL,” someone else wrote.
The reality is that Clark is the biggest single draw in all of sports right now, and as long as that remains the case, the league will make sure she is front and center.
The post ‘WNBA gets this completely backwards’: Analyst does not hold back on marketing Caitlin Clark appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.
