Can Caitlin Clark Become Women Basketball’s Reggie Miller? Ex-NBA Star Reflects on 22YO Before 2024 WNBA Draft

Transforming the entire college basketball landscape, her feats echoed with athletes in different sports. Caitlin Clark broke significant records and lifted the bar for future athletes. Her on-court charisma made everyone around her better, and this was not limited to only her teammates. Her winning accolades drew appreciation from several athletes like Billie Jean King, Tom Brady, Eli and Peyton Manning, and Damian Lillard, among others.

Now that she is headed towards a new grand chapter of her career, as she is already being placed near the big players in the NBA.

Caitlin Clark already winning hearts

Comparisons have started to be drawn as Caitlin Clark prepares for the 2024 WNBA draft. In a recent YouTube video, former Indiana Pacers’ forward Al Harrington made an interesting admission of calling Clark a women’s basketball Reggie Miller. He says, “I’m sure the WNBA would love for her to be in a bigger market than that, you know what I’m saying, but I think she going to thrive. She’s like going be the female Reggie Miller.”

Giving a glimpse of the big-league environment for Clark, Harrington adds, “She going to be cold, but I know all the girls in the league are licking their chops to get their hands on it too. So, they build you up to sometime, get you tore down, so it’s going to be interesting, you know what I’m saying. I mean she cold so it’s not like she not going to be good but it’s going to see how good especially when the level is up.”

He then shared his take on the record-breaking viewership stats of women’s college basketball, “Even me! I watch like, I actually like women’s basketball now. In the past I haven’t been like, I mean, I’m a fan obviously but you know not like, you know breaking my neck and make sure I can go watch,” expressing his newfound enthusiasm for watching women’s college basketball. The 2024 NCAA women’s title game drew more viewers than men’s, averaging more than 18 million viewers on ABC and ESPN combined. The figures finally peaked at 24 million viewers.

The conversation then took a turn toward women’s college basketball’s ability to sustain this level of viewership without Clark. To which, Harrington responds, “I don’t know man. I just think that like with women’s basketball in general, especially in college, the fact that they stay for 4 years and all. That allows you to like build a whole following and all that kind of stuff, so I think that had a lot to do with you know why so many people watched as well.”

“Not yet not yet. I mean she going to have a hell of a following there but I don’t think consistently you know what I’m saying, like they going to be able to compete. It is not enough games it’s just it’s two different things, you know what I’m saying, but I think she definitely going to have a lot of turnouts, not only in Indiana but everywhere she play. I’m happy for the game of basketball for women seeing it Excel and hopefully that means they’re going to be able to get bigger contracts and everything across the board,” he adds, responding to if she can compete with the Pacers’ games with regards to viewership.

Having been through Harrington’s insightful inputs, let’s now check out the details related to the 2024 WNBA draft.

The 2024 WNBA draft details

The moment anticipated by basketball enthusiasts is finally coming. Presented by State Farm, the 2024 WNBA draft is set to take place on Monday, 15th April at 7:30 p.m. One of basketball’s most exciting events where WNBA’s next-generation stars are going to be selected will be held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

This year’s event will be the first time in 10 years that fans will be in attendance at the grand selection. Also, it is the second consecutive year that the Indiana Fever has won the right to select first in the upcoming draft. Last year they won the 2023 WNBA Draft Lottery and selected Aliyah Boston as the No. 1 overall draft pick.

According to WNBA.com, the Draft’s format will be three rounds, within which each round will have twelve picks. In addition, the order of team picks is inversely from the last regular season, except for the first round’s first four picks.