It won’t be easy for Caitlin Clark in the world’s most unmerciful sports league

FEver since Caitlin Clark was tapped by the Indiana Fever with the first overall pick in last month’s WNBA draft, the buzz around the ponytailed basketball folk hero from the American heartland has only doubled.

The 22-year-old West Des Moines native, who earlier this year broke Pete Maravich’s 54-year-old record to become the all-time leading scorer in major college basketball history, is the leader of a sensational WNBA rookie class that has drawn in recent months millions of new fans to the women’s game – and generated an unprecedented sense of excitement as the competition’s 28th season kicked off on Tuesday evening.

Signposts of the so-called Caitlin Clark effect are everywhere you look. Her replica No. 22 jersey out of stock within an hour of being called into the league’s official store. StubHub has announced the sale of WNBA games were up 93% compared to last season. Last week the Dallas wings And Atlanta dream confirmed that they had sold out their season ticket packages after the vaunted Las Vegas Aces did the same in March. When the WNBA’s streaming app failed to carry a preseason game Friday that featured the debuts of Chicago’s Angel Reese and Minnesota’s Kamilla Cardoso, a fan’s cell phone was streamed live from the stands viewed over half a million times overnight and more than 2.5 million in total in the following days.

And despite all the justified fuss about Clark’s modest rookie salary of $76,000, her recently inked $28 million endorsement deal with Nike is no small consolation, let alone previous lucrative deals with companies like Gatorade, State Farm, Xfinity and Panini.

Busy times, indeed. But the honeymoon won’t last long. It will be a whole new game for Clark when Indiana opens their season Tuesday night against the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena – and no one seems to know it better than Clark himself.

“The WNBA is so competitive right now,” Clark said in Brooklyn last month, after Indiana confirmed America’s worst-kept secret by making her a top pick. “Every time you step on the floor it will be a rivalry. I think so many teams have so much talent. This is the most competitive league in the world. Less than 144 spots.”

That’s not an exaggeration. While the NBA consists of 30 teams with a maximum of 15 players in the regular season, the WNBA currently consists of 12 teams with no more than 12 players each – with many clubs not even reaching the maximum due to the strict salary requirements. limitations of the maximum. Unlike the NBA’s G League, there is no developmental circuit where players who miss the cut can fall back and hone their skills, at least not domestically. And while there are opportunities abroad, many of those spots are filled by established WNBA players who supplement their salaries in the offseason. The war in Ukraine and Brittney Grinner’s nine-month incarceration have further complicated matters, with few overseas leagues offering better pay than Russia.

It has created a brutal numbers game reflects a cutthroat reality. Of the 36 players selected in the 2023 WNBA draft, only 15 appeared on opening day rosters, while barely half (19) have ever appeared in a single game. Since 2018, more than a third of all draft picks – 74 of 216 (34.3%) – have not played a single minute of a WNBA game.

“We’ve even seen first-round picks in recent years who couldn’t sustain their rookie year,” ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said in a conference call with reporters last month. “The hardest part of this conversation every year is the reality that second- and third-round picks have a very difficult time making WNBA rosters. Late first-round picks struggle to make WNBA rosters. We’re talking about a league of 144. It’s not a league of 144. A lot of these teams only have 11 players and maybe by the end of the season they could have a twelfth.”

The encouraging news in the long run is that the WNBA will actually expand. The Bay Area was awarded a franchise in October that will join the league next year, with commissioner Cathy Englebert saying at draft night that she believes 14th, 15th and 16th teams will be added by 2028.

High lottery picks like Clark, Reese, Cardoso, LA Sparks’ Cameron Brink and Washington Mystics’ Aaliyah Edwards don’t have to worry about making the opening day roster. But a relative sense of job security won’t make it any easier on Tuesday’s first taste of live fire at a track where veterans are known to be sparing with newcomers. Look no further than Diana Taurasi, the 42-year-old floor general who is still operating at an elite level and entering her 20th season with the Phoenix Mercury. When Taurasi was asked last month what Clark has in store for her as the year begins, he was generally to the point.

“Reality is coming,” Taurasi said. “There are levels to this thing. We’ve all experienced it. That’s happening on the NBA side, and you’ll see it on this side. You look superhuman playing against 18 year olds, but you’re going to come play with grown women who have been playing professional basketball for a long time.

“I’m not saying it won’t translate, because if you’re good at what you do, you’ll only get better. But there will be a transition period where you have to give some grace as a newcomer. ”

ESPN analyst Andraya Carter, who believes Clark’s range, shooting and vision will translate immediately to the professional level, was a little more tactful when asked to assess the challenges the 6-foot-1 point guard will face .

“In terms of challenges, the physical battle against adult women will be tough,” Carter said. “The hits will be a little bit harder, the checks will be harder. The defense will become more physical and the players will be faster. Just anyone going from college to the next level, they talk about the speed of the game. Everything goes faster. Everything will become more difficult.”

For all the column inches spent on whether this rookie class can carry the momentum of a transformative college basketball season to the WNBA, none of it will matter when the rubber hits the road on Tuesday night. From then on, performance overtakes potential as the only thing that matters.

“I’m sure there’s pressure,” Clark said last month. “That’s been my whole career.”