Nike News: Caitlin Clark vs LeBron James Rookie Deal Exposes Striking Gap In Basketball

College sensation, Caitlin Clark’s rookie WNBA contract proves to be a doorway of many controversies. While an average NBA rookie can touch the $10 million mark right away, the new Indiana Fever guard will make just $76,535 as her base salary. While the WNBA team chose to avoid considering Caitlin Clark’s fandom, Nike sees plenty of opportunities. Luckily, the $140 billion industry leader might end all the monetary woes fans have displayed since her draft.

The Athletic reports Caitlin Clark is on the brink of solidifying an 8-figure lucrative endorsement deal with none other than Nike. While there are no details on the alleged contract, there is a possibility that her contract with Nike could immediately lift Caitlin’s earnings over the $10 million mark. Despite that, Caitlin’s potential endorsement deal will be dwarfed by LeBron James‘ 2003 contract with Nike.

James had signed a $87 million deal with Nike, spanning 7-years. Bringing much of the hype, like Caitlin, James also had standing offers by Adidas ($60 million) and Reebok ($115 million). Even though Caitlin garnered interest from several shoe brands, there has been nothing similar to the privilege LBJ had before his NBA draft. Fan’s relentless following of Caitlin has sparked several notions about the discrepancy between NBA and WNBA.

However, it is essential to note that the NBA generates nearly $10 billion in revenue each year, while the WNBA is projected to reach $200 million. With that, when connecting Caitlin Clark’s rookie year pay to NBA and WNBA’s earnings, her $76,535 paycheque falls along the lines of Tyrese Haliburton‘s $3,831,840 rookie deal.

However, when comparing Caitlin’s first-year pay to the No.1 draft selection over the last 4 years (Anthony Edwards, Cade Cunningham, Paolo Banchero, and Victor Wembanyama) it staggeringly falls short of $6,929,090 on average!

Nike recognizes the potential Caitlin Clark holds

Clark is one of the core youngsters with active involvement in changing the future tapestry of women’s basketball. The 2024 March Madness saw its peak viewership solely behind Clark’s run. The 3 most viewed games involved her Hawkeyes team and her final game even surpassed the eyes on the men’s finals – 18.9 million spectators.

Moreover, her inclusion in the drafts spiked the cheers in the arena, increasing audience participation to 4x of last year’s 572,000. ESPN’s draft coverage for the 2024 WNBA saw 2.45 million spectators. Taking WNBA’s 2024 draft views in a broader light, not even the 2023 WNBA finals managed to bring in half of the viewers Caitlin did without the ball in her hand. With that, one can naturally assume that her first WNBA game could mark the women’s league’s first-ever game with at least a million viewers in 16 years!

Moreover, according to Fanatics, Caitlin’s jersey became the highest seller of all-time draft picks in their company history on draft night.

With that, it is clear that Nike recognizes the potential fanbase they can tap with Caitlin Clark by their side. Personally, when their short-sightedness with Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving helped establish two competitors in the basketball sneaker space.