When Caitlin Clark revealed her brutal “Welcome to the WNBA” moment: “It hurts so bad” originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Ever since getting drafted by the Indiana Fever as the number one pick of the WNBA Draft in 2024, Caitlin Clark has single-handedly elevated the popularity of the whole league like only the few athletes have in sports history in general.
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Her extraordinary playmaking and shooting ability, along with her basketball IQ, captivated fans already during her time at Iowa, where she played college ball, as her games started to break records in terms of viewership almost every other night.
The same continued when she made it to the best women’s basketball league on the planet. When Clark was a rookie last season, 23 WNBA games drew one million viewers.
She played in 20 of those games.
That fact gets even better when we know, according to Sports Media Watch, no WNBA games had at least one million viewers since 2008.
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Clark’s “Welcome to the WNBA moment”
So, it’s fair to say that Clark’s impact on the league’s development and popularity is huge. From the ticket prices, the already mentioned viewership, Clark is such a big superstar that when she was injuried early this season, the interest for WNBA games massively dropped.
Even though Clark took the league by storm, like every professional athlete, she needed to have an adjustment period at the beginning.
Earlier in the year, while she was a guest on the “New Heights” podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, she shared what her “Welcome to the WNBA” moment looked like.
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“It was early on, I want to say it was like our 10th game of the year. We ended up playing in New York vs the Liberty, who ended up winning the championship this year. And somebody set a screen on me and I hit my ear just perfect on the girl where my eardrum popped. It ruptured and I knew it right away cause I’ve done it before and it hurts so bad,” Clarke shared the story with a painful face while remembering the details.
Injury problems
While it hurts, it’s still considered a minor injury, so she didn’t miss any game action back then, but it’s been a different story this season, where Clark is struggling to stay healthy.
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Indiana is remaining competitive in her absence with a 12-11 record, but she played in only 13 of those games. Quad injury caused her to miss five games at the beginning of the season, but then she had groin problems that reoccurred recently. That’s why she already announced that she won’t be participating in the All-Star Weekend festivities, whether it’s an All-Star game this Saturday, or a 3-point shooting contest tonight where Clark was supposed to be competing in.
These injury issues might be the main reason for her struggles when she did play this year.
Even though her averages of 16.5 points per game, along with the 5.5 rebounds and 8.8 assists, look respectable at first glance, the truth is Clark has been struggling when she stepped on the court. She’s shooting a horrendus 36.7 percent from the field and even worse 27.9 percent from the 3-point line. Knowing that Clark’s shooting alongside passing ability is the staple of her game, she is playing well below expectations.
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That’s why it’s not surprising that Clark decided to take a weekend off to try to rehab and get fully healthy to prepare for the second half of the season where she’ll lead the playoff push for Indiana.
However, WNBA is probably still counting how much money they will miss out on during the All-Star Weekend because of Clark’s absence.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 19, 2025, where it first appeared.
