Caitlin Clark's Playoff Debut Had More Viewers Than The Other 3 First Round Games Combined (And The Most Viewers Since The 2000 Finals)
So Caitlin Clark made her playoff debut on Sunday, going right up against the main NFL slate, and she more than held her own. All she did in the #6 seed vs. #3 seed first round matchup was make it the most watched playoff game in more than 2 decades. It hasn't been since the 2000 WNBA Finals that more people tuned in to watch the always competitive, always entertaining sport of women's basketball played on the world's biggest stage. But I personally don't find that to be too much of a story. It's no secret (except to Angel Reese and Sheryl Swoopes) that Caitlin Clark has single handidly put professional women's basketball on the map this season. So the bigger story to me is not comparing the rise in the sport overall, rather the comparsion of her game on Sunday to the other games on Sunday.
Hold on, let me pull out the calculator for a second....
461,000 + 410,000 + 403,000 = 1,274,000. That is the number of people that tuned in to watch the 3 WNBA playoff games on Sunday that did NOT have Caitlin Clark involved. Did it have basically the entire US Olympic team? Yes. Did it have the 1 seed? Yes. Did it have the unanimous MVP? Of course. But it didn't have Caitlin Clark. You know what did, though? The Fever vs. Sun game....that had 1.84 million viewers. More than 500,000 more people that the rest of the games combined. And for that, I think all of us women's basketball fans need to stand up and applaud both Caitlin and Angel for their contributions to the game!
Oh wait, the Sky aren't even in the playoffs. But listen, I'm officially done with that problem. Caitlin was the unanimous Rookie of the Year, an AP 1st Team All WNBA Player, and 4th in the MVP voting. The Sky aren't even in the playoffs, so there's no use beating a dead horse. What we need to focus on now is some good old fashioned rigging of the next game. Tim Donaghy available? Because Caitlin and the Fever are dogs, on the road, in an elimination game. And I know the WNBA has shown they have no fucking brain cells by leaving Caitlin off the playoff promotion graphic, but if there's even 1 ounce of intelligence in that league office, the Fever get a good whistle tomorrow and take it back to Indiana for the two best word's in sports: Game 3.