Caitlin Elizabeth Clark has become one of the biggest names in American sports in just two years.
From NCAA records to WNBA superstardom, the 23-year-old Indiana Fever guard has revolutionized women’s basketball and created a new generation of fans.
“She’s a generational talent,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“No league is ever about one player, but in this case Caitlin brought tens of millions of new viewers into the (WNBA).”
But everything comes with a price, and Clark has also become a lightning rod for opinion and criticism.
LeBron James and NBA commissioner Adam Silver have praised Clark, but others insist that she’s overrated and sometimes plays to the crowd.
The reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year has struggled with a groin injury this season, while the Fever have been stuck in the middle of the standings.
Below, talkSPORT takes a look at the most fascinating — and controversial — moments of Clark’s basketball career.
She’s more than just Angel Reese‘s biggest rival, and her life could already be turned into a Hollywood movie.
10. Back-to-back All-Star teams
Clark is obviously the face of the WNBA, but her second All-Star honor wasn’t universally loved.
“She’s been playing like c*** and missing games but ok,” one fan tweeted.
Clark’s massive popularity was evident in the 2025 All-Star Game fan vote, which saw the former Iowa star lead all WNBA players with 1,293,526 votes.
“It’s going to be special to do it here in this city,” said Clark, referring to a July 19 game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
But with Clark only shooting 37.4 percent from the field and missing nine games heading into the annual WNBA exhibition, some critics used her second All-Star nod as another opportunity to take a shot at her.
More than 1 million fans saw it another way.
“The face of the league, of course, is going to be the captain,” a fan tweeted.
9. Summer Olympics snub
There’s no doubt that Clark will make the next Olympics team.
But her snub on the 2024 squad in Paris is still playing out a year later.
Clark was a WNBA rookie when the Team USA roster was announced, and an eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal was achieved in Paris without her, thanks to a thrilling 67-66 victory over France.
But when Clark answered the snub with a scorching finish to her rookie season, it became even harder to explain leaving her off the 2024 Olympic team.
She was already one of the best women’s players in the world.
8. ‘We’ll get along just fine’
One of the oddest moments of Clark’s WNBA career occurred before her first game.
It was also a symbol of everything that she would face as she changed the future of the sport.
Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel attempted to dictate what Clark should do after she joined the Fever
“Start doing it to me and we’ll get along just fine,” said Doyel, after referencing Clark’s tendency to make a heart shape with her hands in a loving gesture to her family at the end of games.
The backlash was immediate, and Doyel was soon barred from covering Clark with the Fever in person during her rookie season.
“To clarify I meant to call Gregg (Doyel) a sexist pervert. Which he is based on his nauseating actions today,” Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy tweeted.
Doyel later apologized to Clark, and admitted his conduct was ‘ignorant.’
7. WNBA referees
Fever head coach Stephanie White isn’t the only one who’s been forced to address a recurring WNBA referee problem.
“I thought she (Clark) got fouled,” White said after a tough Indiana loss to the New York Liberty in May 2025.
“I think it’s pretty egregious what’s been happening to us the last few games. Minus-31 free throw discrepancy.”
White didn’t back down while backing her superstar player.
“The disrespect right now for our team has been pretty unbelievable,” White said.
“It’s disappointing that it doesn’t go both ways, or it hasn’t gone both ways.”
Clark is a career 88.8 percent free-throw shooter.
But 12 contests into her second season, she was shooting less free throws per game (3.7) and her overall numbers were down.
Game changer
Caitlin Clark bio
Born: January 22, 2002
Vitals: 6ft, 157lb
College: Iowa
Draft: No. 1 overall in 2024 by Indiana Fever
WNBA stats: 18.6 points, 8.6 assists, 5.5 rebounds, 1.4 steals, 40.7 % FG, 33.2 % 3P, 88.8 % FT
WNBA honors: Rookie of the Year , All-WNBA, All-Star (2)
College honors: 3,951 points (most in NCAA history), All-American (4), Wooden Award (2), Naismith Award (2), Player of the Year (2)
Did you know? Clark played on boys’ basketball teams during her early years because of a lack of AAU options
6. ‘I definitely have privilege’
For all of Clark’s talent on the court, most of the controversy surrounding her occurs off the hardwood.
Some fans applauded Clark for publicly addressing her ‘privilege,’ but others were surprised by her comments.
“I definitely have privilege,” Clark said on Netflix’s ‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction’ with David Letterman.
“I’m obviously white but … I’m somebody that grew up a huge fan of this league. I grew up watching this league, going to games, supporting this league. So, I know where this league comes from.
“A lot of Black women that grew up making this league what it is. That’s kind of the shoulders that we stand on. So, I think that was something I’m very aware of and something I’m very thankful for.
“They definitely deserve all the credit and the more we can give credit to them, the better. I’m very aware of that and I know that, and I think there is responsibility in acknowledging that.”
Clark also addressed being singled out in the WNBA.
“I don’t think I was being targeted,” Clark said.
5. New basketball league
Clark has never publicly said that she wants to start a new women’s basketball league.
But that hasn’t stopped others from stating that she should seriously consider the idea.
“If Caitlin Clark just woke up one morning and decided she was sick of the WNBA s*** and decided to start her own league which wouldn’t be that difficult with her star power she’d put the WNBA out of business in 2 years,” Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy tweeted in May 2025.
With an estimated net worth of $10 million and major sponsorships, Clark’s star power keeps growing.
But leaving the WNBA for a new league would be a true sport-changer.
4. Hard fouls and eye poke
Clark has received so many hard fouls since joining the WNBA that it’s hard to keep track.
It all started when the Fever rookie was on the receiving end of a hard bodycheck from Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter, then dealt with a rough box out from former college rival Reese.
Patrick Mahomes‘ wife, Brittany, shared a defiant message of support for the WNBA rookie in June 2024.
“@caitlinclark22 keep doing your thing!!” Brittany wrote on Instagram.
“You’re a baller and it’s incredible to see what you’re doing for the game and women’s sports!!”
Less than a year later, Reese had to be held back by a referee after clashing with Clark.
The Sky star was driving for the basket when she was shoved to the ground by her main rival.
Clark drew a flagrant foul, while Reese and Clark’s teammate Aliyah Boston received offsetting technical fouls.
“It’s just a good take foul,” Clark told ESPN.
“Either Angel gets wide open two points or we send them to the free throw line. Nothing malicious about it. It’s just a good take foul, every basketball player knows that.”
The WNBA later investigated allegations of racist comments aimed at Reese, but could not substantiate the report.
In June 2025, Clark was poked in the eye by the Connecticut Sun’s Jacy Sheldon, after they had clashed earlier in the game.
Sheldon’s original foul on Clark was upgraded to a flagrant.
“I think it was pretty obvious that stuff was brewing,” Fever coach White said.
“When the officials don’t get control of the ball game, when they allow that stuff to happen, this is what happens.”
3. Underpaid superstar
Some of Clark’s biggest supporters have stated that she’ll never be paid what she’s worth to the WNBA.
What’s undebatable is that Clark is woefully underpaid two years into her pro career.
The WNBA record-setter has a four-year contract worth $338,000.
In 2025, Clark is set to make $78,000 on the court.
Reigning NBA MVP and champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander plays for the small-market Oklahoma City Thunder, but just received a new supermax contract and is averaging $68.1 million per season.
That means that SGA makes $68 million a year more than Clark, and still has about $20,000 left over in extra change.
2. Diana Taurasi vs Clark
One of the worst predictions about Clark’s career foreshadowed everything she would face in the WNBA.
“Reality is coming (for Clark),” Taurasi told ESPN in 2024. “There’s levels to this thing. And that’s just life.”
Taurasi won three WNBA championships and was the league’s MVP in 2009.
But the five-time scoring champ was exposed by what many perceived as a lack of acceptance for a young guard who would quickly change the WNBA.
Taurasi later took the high road and acknowledged Clark’s sport-changing talent.
“Unfortunately, reality has come to me now,” Taurasi said.
1. Angel Reese vs Clark
A championship game for the ages started a rivalry that is still simmering.
Clark has admitted that she’s not ‘best friends’ with Reese, who flexed on her rival with a 102-85 victory in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game on April 2, 2023 at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
With an average of 9.9 million viewers, the clash became the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history.
Reese celebrated by giving Clark the John Cena ‘You can’t see me’ taunt, and pointed toward her ring finger to highlight an incoming national championship ring.
Reese said she taunted Clark because the Iowa star had previously ‘disrespected’ her teammate Alexis Morris, as well as the South Carolina Gamecocks.
“I was waiting,” Reese told ESPN.
“Caitlin Clark is a hell of a player for sure, but I don’t take disrespect lightly.
“She disrespected Alexis and my girls, South Carolina — they’re my SEC girls, too.”
One of the best rivalries in sports was born, and the controversy surrounding Clark’s talent hasn’t stopped since.
