“That was never a long shot.” Time and again, Nike has proven how they are going to build their brand name on the shoulders of the 22-year-old point guard. What began in her junior season back in Iowa has only translated in more bigger and better forms in the WNBA. While the WNBA season is over for Caitlin Clark, it is just the beginning of her off-court victories. While brands like Wilson came to the fore to congratulate her on the immaculate rookie season, it is Nike who did something unexpected, once again.

The sporting giant Nike placed a billboard outside the Gainbridge Fieldhouse with Caitlin Clark’s picture in the Fever jersey. The caption of the billboard read “Is there a rookie record for rookie records?” The snap of the whole setting was shared by Indiana’s beat writer Scott Agness on his X account. This type of celebration has not been done by Nike for any other Fever star or even any Indiana Pacers athlete, who share the same arena.

Clark joined the Nike family in 2022 and once she made it to the WNBA, she was promised a signature shoe deal. The contract was also historic since it was for $28 million for which Clark apparently rejected Under Armour. But up until now, Nike hadn’t done anything special for Clark, which got them a lot of flak from fans. Except for the custom Nike Kobe 5 Protro PE sneakers that Clark debuted throughout her rookie campaign. But now that Nike has made a billboard of their thread caption, maybe it will appease fans.

After Clark had won ROTY recently, Nike posted a thread of every record Clark broke during the season with the same caption as that in the billboard. And while they looked to celebrate Clark on social media, fans could not take away their mind from the fact that the company hadn’t done much after their historic deal in lifting Clark. “finally taking notice,” one fan wrote. And maybe with the billboard, Nike has once again followed their most competent Clark strategy and this time will win fans’ hearts.

Nike’s NCAA celebrations for Caitlin Clark

When the point guard had eclipsed the legendary Pete Maravich’s record in the NCAA, she was congratulated by her fans. Clark with a free throw, had gone past ‘Pistol Pete’s’ tally of 3,667 points. Taking cognizance of the same, Nike put up a billboard at Times Square in New York with Clark shooting her famous Logo-3. Just a few lanes away was the picture of a basketball hoop, which many say pointed to her ability to shoot long-distance shots. Not only that, Nike also put up a video that spoke of Clark’s numerous achievements. Not to mention, their impeccable timing to celebrate the then-Hawkeye by cleverly using the TV ad right after she broke the record to talk about the massive achievement.

The shoe company had put out a video where an announcer was listing Clark’s record and the list was so long that he had to take a pause to breathe. The video was aired at halftime during her crucial game against Ohio State in which she outdid Maravich. Plus Nike had also put up billboards shedding light on Clark’s story. “Caitlin Clark is the biggest star in basketball,” read one caption.

And now that Nike is following the same strategy in the WNBA, fans would be hoping that Clark makes as much noise in the off-season as she did during the season. Perhaps, they would also be expecting Nike to drop some products with Clark as soon as possible before the release of her signature shoes.