Caitlin Clark was supposed to solidify her standing as the Michael Jordan of women’s hoops this season, leading the loaded Indiana Fever to her first WNBA championship. Clark’s injuries have prevented that scenario and as the season winds down, we haven’t seen the WNBA’s cash cow on the court in a game since before the All-Star break. Also, Paige Bueckers happened.
RELATED: Caitlin Clark Needs to Shut It Down For Season
As Clark’s Indiana Fever team prepares for the playoffs without her presence on the hardwood, fans are disappointed and league ratings have reportedly dipped. The flip side is that other players have been allowed to shine. We know that when Clark is on the court she is the most polarizing ahlete probably in all of sports for various reasons aside from her crazy talent and charisma.
ESPN Votes Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers Top 2 Players Under 25
ESPN gave their opinion about which of these two stars is more elite right now by listing Clark as the league’s No. 1 best player under 25-years-old in an August 27 article.
“Due to injuries, she has been limited to 13 games this season, averaging 16.5 points, 8.8 assists and 5.0 rebounds. But when healthy, Clark’s impact is enormous: She stretches the floor with her shooting range, pushes the pace and picks defenses apart with her passing. The 23-year-old brings an unmatched excitement factor every time she’s on court, and her confidence spreads to the whole team…”She is also the biggest draw on the road of any WNBA player, so her effect on the entire league is huge,” the article wrote of Clark.
Is Paige Bueckers Better Than Caitlin Clark?
Dallas Wings rookie Paige Bueckers is a player whose stock has risen in Clark’s absence. Those with short memories might even circulate the narrative that the former UConn star is a better all-around player who may have already surpassed Clark as the “face of the future.” From a pure basketball perspective, Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson is the No.1 player in the league, but her brand and star power can’t touch Clark’s. It also pales in comparison to Angel Reese — and Bueckers.
Bueckers has already locked down the Rookie of the Year award by setting the WNBA rookie record for points in a single game with 44 points on August 20, 2025, against the Los Angeles Sparks. She also joins CC as the second rookie in WNBA history to record at least 500 points, 150 assists, 100 rebounds, and 50 steals in a season.
She’s doing Clarkian things and getting plenty of love. Even filling a void to an extent, with an all-around offensive excellence similar to Clark’s. Clark probably has the edge in passing ability as she would have led the league in assists again this season if healthy.
Both can shoot it. Paige does her surgery with a bit more efficiency and less low percentage shots. She was 11-of-13 through three quarters of her rookie-record scoring game. Clark never hit more than 10 shots in a game in her WNBA career.
By those standards, it’s not crazy when someone says Bueckers is just as good as Clark and should get the same love. Even if her team is fighting for the No. 1 pic in the draft again next season.
Caitlin Clark Has The “It” Factor On A Major Scale
Taking nothing from Paige who has a box office appeal, some people just captivate the masses in a way that others don’t. In the case of Caitlin Clark she’s more of a phenomenon than an athlete and those don’t come around often, ever. When it comes to those intangibles, packing the house, driving ratings, creating drama in every game, passion and even some dirty pool, nobody does it better than CC.
She isn’t the face of the WNBA just because she’s white. Bueckers, Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Kelsey Plum are as elite as it gets in the league. And while they are respected and promoted and have solid brands, it’s nothing close to the power that Caitlin Clark holds.
The league hopes to show that it could be successful without her by pointing out the ratings success in a season where she didn’t even play half of the games (13). However, we all know that she is still a major part of why people are tuning in. It’s also why Indiana still hasn’t confirmed that she’s been shut down for the season, when most of us knew this after that last groin injury came so quickly after her fourth lower body and muscle injury. It’s a wrap for her. The WNBA has always gotten ratings. Maybe not to this consistent level throughout the league, but it’s had an audience for its 32-year existence.
WNBA Not The Same Without CC
The crown jewel, however is Clark. Sure, fans of other stars and those stars themselves are tired of hearing about Clark and how she is the savior of the league and everything from chartered flights to ratings and attendance spikes should be attributed to her. At the end of the day, as someone who can definitely be considered in the 1 percent of true male WNBA fans, having covered the league in its early stages, the shine ain’t the same without Caitlin Clark. Everyone should just admit it. The league has to be apprehensive about the potential playoff rartings decline. If not for league parity, which has led to a congested playoff scenario for the eight seeds, ratings could be worse.
There’s not a metric or an accolade that the league can boast to convince me otherwise. There’s a spark that the WNBA lost when Clark went down. Paige Bueckers and others have emerged as formidable side kicks to CC’s wave, but ain’t nothing like real thing baby. I’m just saying.
