“Is She the next Michael Jordan?” read the Sports Illustrated for Women decades ago with the photo of one 14-year-old Seimone Augustus. Courtesy of Caitlin Clark, the 2006 WNBA Rookie of the Year, Augustus, is back in the headlines. In Indiana Fever’s Sunday night game against the Dallas Wings, Clark scored a career-high 35 points to set a new WNBA rookie scoring record. She overtook Augustus’ 2006 record of 744 points, taking her 2024 tally to 761 in 39 games.

Not only does this show how legendary Clark’s rookie career has been, but also Augustus’ greatness in cementing and holding a record for 18 years. That’s over a decade longer than the average NBA and WNBA player’s career length. Moreover, this record is only the tip of the iceberg of Seimone Augustus’ WNBA career that made her only the second woman ever to be named The Star Tribune’s Sports Person of the Year. So before diving into the cherished memories that Clark has of her, let’s dive into the retired star’s accolade-laden basketball career.

Meet the Minnesota Lynx’s most lethal shooter

The Minnesota Lynx drafted Seimone Augustus as the first overall pick in the 2006 WNBA draft. The 6 ft guard had an exceptional collegiate career with the LSU Tigers. She led the team to three consecutive Final Four appearances but never crossed the semifinal hurdle. However, that was the polar opposite of what was awaiting her in the professional basketball world.

Augustus finished her rookie season with the second-highest points average of 21.9. Only the now 6x Olympic Gold winner (and still active) Diana Taurasi was ahead of her. In her second year, the Louisiana native amazingly one-upped her rookie average, finishing with 22.6 PPG. But a paradox faced her. While her career took off, the Lynx were struggling, unlike their current dominance.

In 2009, tragedy struck. Augustus had a season-ending ACL tear followed by surgery to remove fibromas the next season. But when she returned, she made sure that the comeback was bigger than the setback. Joined by the likes of Maya Moore, Rebekkah Brunson, and more, the Lynx were more fierce than ever. From 2011 to 2017, Minnesota won 4 WNBA championships in alternate years. During those years, her personal life bloomed too. In 2012, she came out publicly in ‘The Advocate’ and married partner LaTaya Varner three years later. Augustus also added 2 Olympic gold medals to her tally in that period after her first in 2008.

But after her 4th championship with Minnesota in 2017, the team derailed. In 2018, they didn’t finish in the top 2, securing a lowly 7th seed. That year also ominously marked Seimone Augustus’ last WNBA All-Star appearance. In 2020, Seimone Augustus departed the Minnesota Lynx after a 14-year stint for the Los Angeles Sparks. But that position didn’t last as long as for the Minneapolis franchise.

Seimone Augustus’ extraordinary honors & her post-WNBA life

After only one year on the West Coast, where her points average was 5.9 in 21 games, Augustus retired to become the assistant coach for the team. “Seimone Augustus is one of the greatest basketball players to ever step foot on a court,” Sparks general manager and head coach Derek Fisher said in a statement. “Her impact as a pioneer in our sport can be seen through all the players and people she’s impacted in this game.” 

With her achievements speaking louder than anything, she was named in the top 25 WNBA players of all time in 2021. The next year, the Lynx retired her jersey as a mark of respect. In January 2023, LSU honored Augustus with a statue on the school campus. She became LSU’s first female athlete to have an on-campus statue alongside the likes of NBA legends Shaquille O’Neal, Bob Pettie, and Pete Maravich. In her acceptance statement, she humbly thanked the numerous female athletes who paved the way for her to shine and emphasized how she represented all those who came before her.

In the same year, she also stepped away from the Sparks only to return to LSU as the assistant coach for women’s basketball in 2024. Her life came full circle. During her break, she explored her other interests, curating the book ‘Hoop Muses’, described as “an insider’s guide to pop culture and the (women’s) game”.

Now that you have a brief idea of what her illustrious basketball career looked like, let’s dive into the Caitlin Clark connection.

Caitlin Clark’s special childhood connection with Seimone Augustus

After Caitlin Clark broke Seimone Augustus’ rookie scoring record with a career-high 35 against the Wings, she got nostalgic. She got flashbacks of her childhood meeting with Augustus during a Minnesota Lynx game, who was the first WNBA player she ever met. “I got my picture with her on my dad’s little phone. It was maybe like a BlackBerry back in the day,” Clark said after the Fever’s regular season home finale. “I vividly remember it. I was always a fan of her game and the way she could shoot the ball.”

Fortunately for the Des Moines born, this admiration was mutual. In July of this year, Augustus gave a very honest assessment of the first-overall pick. “When we think about Caitlin Clark, we already saw that in college. We just didn’t know what it would look like on a pro level. And, you know, the first two or three weeks, she played two of the top three teams from, you know, the previous year,” Augustus said in an interview on ‘SiriusXM NBA Radio’.

The Lynx legend then explained how Clark finally proved herself on the biggest stage. “So it was kind of like gotta get her footing, and now that we see she’s gotten her footing, I mean, she’s at the top of the league in assists, you know, got her team going, like it looks amazing,” the 4x champ concluded.

The Baton Rouge-born star has immortalized herself as one of the WNBA greats. In April 2024, she was also inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Laden with championships rings, Augustus’ mission is to create more legends from where she emerged. It won’t be a surprise if LSU becomes the hub for future WNBA aspirants.