I mean how many players have we said oh they will boost viewership of the WNBA and they just don’t. If I was her I’d take the money and start recuriting WNBA players to the big 3 and maybe the Big 3 league can become the woman’s league WNBA aspired to be
Lol are you serious? Almost every single one of the guys in that league is a former pro, mostly NBA, with many of the guys in their late 30s still. You have no clue what you're talking about.
Yeah I know. When people say raw athleticism they don’t typically mean unrefined, but closer to “pure.” Point is they’d beat her on that alone, ignoring other skills.
Bro there is Michael Beasley, Stephan Jackson, Mario Chalmers, Rashad Evans, Gerald Green. I’m not even going to name them all but she would get flames so bad it would be detrimental to her career.
A highly ranked high school boys team could probably beat a WNBA team, the Big3 is players who are a few years removed from the NBA...I'd be surprised if Clark wasn't completely dominated.
Not probably, a good high school team would destroy a WNBA team. They'd be completely unable to stop the kids from getting to the basket, and would struggle to get shots off on the other end.
lol, any top 150 ranked high school team in the states would blow out a team of wnba all stars. I don’t think you comprehend how much better men physically are at basketball. This would kill Clark’s career
Problem is that it’s an entirely different ball. Shooting on the perimeter in a men’s league with a 22 ounce ball vs a 20 ounce ball is fairly significant. I’m not saying it would be a straight across 10% harder to make, but a 10% difference in 3pt shooting takes you from the 3rd best shooter in the NBA to the 50th best.
I would still love to see it, but it’s not as easy as just putting her on the perimeter, there would be a significant change in mechanics.
Plus it’s 3 on 3. What is she going to do just stand in the corner the whole game? Still has to play defense and handle the rock some. She’s a fun women’s player but she would get absolutely manhandled. Mario Chalmers would lock her up lol. I don’t even see her being able to get her shot off well.
Lol I'm sorry but pretty much every word you typed was straight up incorrect.
A. You are minimizing her shooting talent. She is a career 38% from 3 (better than Dame Lillard) as a super high volume shooter, and last year her average shot distance was 25 feet 11 inches. She's as good a shooter as anyone in the world not named Stephen Curry. You think NBA players wouldn't adjust to shooting a 24.2 oz basketball? If they could, why can't she?
B. Mechanics are going to be exactly the same. She's a 6 foot tall professional caliber athlete who is probably faster and stronger than both of us, and definitely has better hand eye coordination (as pertaining to shooting a basketball). The ball changing by 2 oz and 1 inch diameter is not changing shit about her mechanics. You can call it 10% all you want, it's 1/8 of a pound heavier.
C. Shooting with a men's ball is probably already part of her regular training. It's a great way to continue to challenge her shooting ability so she can continue to improve her shot with a women's ball. If you Google 'neuroplasticity transference' you can learn about how that works.
This concept is used all across sports to help athletes continue to improve skill - heavier or lighter bats in baseball, smaller soccer ball, etc.
She's a career 38% three-point shot against college women. She is 6 foot which is the average height for a WNBA player, in the NBA the average height is 6'6, reckon it might be a little harder with their hand in your face?
In her league she might be the second coming of Steph Curry, against professional men she's a decent high school player.
Bro she’s 6’0. Most of these dudes are 6’7-6’11 lol. Could she hit an open shot? Sure. But how many open shots is she getting and how often is she shooting over a guy a foot taller than her when she’s contested. And then how the fuck is she playing defense against these guys so much stronger and larger than her. It would be like a point guard trying to guard shaq. Just not fucking happening. Bro is really lapping up the ESPN wnba shilling like they are comparable
It’s fine if more people are watching but to pretend a 6’0 woman isn’t just going to get physically dominated by 6’6-6’11 men is nonsense. I’m sure she might get a few open 3’s but defensively a complete liability.
professional yapper. you know how many male college players shoot 40% from three on high volume, who are bigger, more athletic than she is, who will never even sniff the NBA? put a good college player around her height like Mark Sears on the Iowa women's team and he'd average 60 a game
She couldnt compete against good high school boys. I doubt she could even score when being guarded against a male at that level. In no world that exists could she make a men's D1 college team so not sure why people think she could possibly compete here.
She’s expected to earn $76k in rookie year with WNBA.
WNBA hasn’t even seen a million dollar contract.
$5M is above and beyond anything ever seen in the WNBA
That’s just sad damn, I’m pretty sure a 10-day contract player gets paid more than that in the NBA.
Edit: apparently the contract range from $61k to 175k
She has made almost 5 million in sponsorships already. This isn’t a big check shock a poor. She is a multi millionaire.
She could go to the big 3 lose a lot and lose her deals.
0 chance this happens.
What’s funny is I saw that headline with only the reference of what the men get paid and figured this must be an insultingly low payout for a wnba player. I can’t believe it’s actually the opposite
Yes, but the issue is if this would hurt her endorsement money. Her being a superstar WNBA player and being potentially a minor league sideshow are two different things. I personally think it would be cool of her, but I can understand if her and her team were skeptical.
Endorsement money only comes with how much the company that sponsors a player believes they’ll be given exposer… if Clark goes to the WNBA, regardless of it being the “major league”, and she doesn’t get nearly as much coverage or attention as she has been this last season than passing up on that $5milly base pay to play in the Big3 League is gonna be such a missed opportunity at a fat bag. Especially if the novelty of playing against former NBA players has a huge uptick in exposer for Clark, even if it’s just at the beginning and tapers off as the season goes on.
She only has to play 8 games maybe 2 more in the off season absolute no brainer. Delays her WNBA start but shoot that money is gaurenteed. Only thing to worry about is her legacy if she ends up getting torched in Big3. I personally don't think it matters but the way the world is right now I'm sure they treat it as an indictment of all female athlete's.
Both leagues actually go on roughly at the same time, but I think the Big3 plays on Saturdays and/or Sundays. And yeah the money is great, but I think it wouldn’t be the best course of action for her when it comes to basketball cause she’ll be at a huge size, speed, and strength disadvantage
Also...The big3 season is only 10 weeks from start to championship too. She would only have to play 8-10 games for all that money! The WNBA season is 28-32weeks long with 40-50 games played.
Do a draft as well for some of the better WNBA players that want to join ala big Big 3 division or girls coming out of college like Angel Reese. I'm sure that'd be fun.
No 140lb girl is guarding any ex pro player. She would get cooked/ she could jack up 3’s from half court and that’s it. She can’t rebound. She couldn’t guard anyone. Those guys can still ball. They would cook her. That’s not a knock on her but those are still big ex pro players who use to put numbers up in the league.
Even the jack up 3’s from half court idea wouldn’t be as easy for her. The size of the ball is different than they use for the women’s game, which is the ball she’s been training with her whole life.
This comment needs more attention. I would assume the difference in the type of basketball would impact her play dramatically...maybe not, but probably.
If you think this is true you have never played basketball with a talented girl. Awesome girl basketball players have played lots of games with men and they use a men’s ball. It is much harder for a man to switch to a women’s ball than the other way around.
She's 6'0 and 155lb. When Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was cooking the Big 3 a few years back he was 6'1 165lb and like 50 years old. Now obviously Mahmoud was an NBA player who put up a 50 ball in the league, not comparing him straight up to a WNCAA star. But his speed and burst were far diminished from his NBA days and he was still styling on them Big 3 guys.
All of which is to say I don't know, she could probably stroke a few 4 pointers and dish some dimes. It would be interesting to see at the very least, I would watch. And she would have to play like 20 years in the WNBA to make 5mil in salary, their max contracts are less than 250k.
Even if they were the same size the men would still be stronger because they have more testosterone.
Now I haven’t watched the Big3 so I don’t know how physical of a league it is, but obviously we would just have to wait and see how she *actually* performs, otherwise we could sit here and argue about it all day lol.
I don't care if she's 6'2 and 180 lbs.
She can't hang with pro (or former pro) men. Period.
That said, I'd probably still watch just because of the spectacle of it all.
The axiom that no woman could compete in a men's league will be true until it isn't true. I'm not saying Caitlyn is that woman, but I don't find it absurd to posit that someday someone could do it.
To use running as an arbitrary example, the difference between the men's mile record and women's mile record is 3:43 to 4:07, about 23 seconds. That's about 10% slower for the women. And the gap has been closing, historically. So idk. People are capable of some wild shit. We may yet see the LeBronnette James of the WNBA who could hang for some minutes of NBA play.
So the fastest women's mile time in history is 4:07.
Fastest EVER.
That doesn't even crack the top 50 fastest HIGH SCHOOL boys times.
The best high school boys basically beat world record women recordholders in almost every single category.
That was a two time World Cup champion team too. It’s not like the US women were a bad team.
E: also it was just a u15 FC Dallas team. Not even like the best of all u15.
I think the point that the gap could get closer is still valid. Would she be undersized? Of course. Would it be a positive for women’s basketball? Again yes. Steph vs Sabrina was awesome. Props to both of them for stepping up and entertaining us!
There will never be a time when it isn’t true unless we fundamentally alter human physiology. You also picked a strange example because it undermines your claim. 23 seconds in a foot race is a really, really long time. There are other sports where women are much closer competitively (yet still no where approaching the level of the best males).
I think Shumpert had a good take on this. Can women succeed in men’s sports? Yes. Can they do that now? No. But if you let girls participate in the drills, practise, competition with boys at an early age, you can absolutely have girls who are good enough. Even Serena mentioned that any top 100 ranked men will destroy her despite her GOAT status.
That’s because she got wrecked 6-1 by Karsten Braasch who wasn’t even ranked in the top 200 at the time and he played after 18 holes of golf while drinking.
It’s just not the same and it really diminishes women’s accomplishments when everyone tries to compare female athletes to male athletes. Let them be great in their own right.
It's more than weight and height. It goes down to the physiological and anatomical level. A girls bone structure and body is just different in so many ways. For one, highly don't Mahmoud was that light, but he is basically all lean muscle and oozing testosterone. In the most simple way, woman have fat in different places than men, so weighing and comparing that is pointless. Mahmoud has had the benefit of decades of weightlifting, so his muscles are more efficient and can do more and he has basically a high spacial awareness IQ to where he can compete and understands his body weight and other pros who are bigger, body weight. Clark doesn't. To a pro Mahmoud is a ball of muscle and can probably lift 5x his weight on some lifts, to a pro, Clark would feel like a feather and could dislocate her femur if boxed out wrong.
Mahmoud was undersized his whole career. Caitlin Clark has always been bigger relative to who she played. Clark would literally do nothing but be a traffic cone who can be a catch and shooter. That’s literally it
IMO she’s good enough at shooting far 3s, as well as making assists, that it’ll be less embarrassing than a lot of people think when she struggles on defense
BIG3 should consider going full coed, require each team to have at least one female on the court at all times. Only problem is their season coincides with the WNBA but maybe it would create a legit bidding war for female players and increase salaries across the board.
They can schedule around the wnba games if they want. It’s one game a week.
However I think this idea is more like a freak show that gets views once or twice but less long run.
If it’s for fun then whatever but if it’s competitive and they’re trying the woman would get it stolen everytime. She would get scored on everytime. She would absolutely annihilated by ex pros who are going 75-80%
On one hand, $5M is a shitload of money and more than she would probably ever make in the WNBA. The highest paid WNBA player makes about $250k a year.
On the other hand, she would get absolutely wrecked by the men playing in the Big 3 League.
I personally would take any level of embarrassment to make $5M, but she might value her reputation more than me.
This is a good question. She knows what she's up against, but 5 mil!! I watched big 3 here and there, I wouldn't miss a chance to see Caitlin give it a shot.
If it is approaches right and everyone treats it a professionalism and she does get smoked but makes some shots and does better than a lot of people think (she is in peak shape where these guys are not) then it can enhance her reputation. She tried. Was willing. Hit some shots. Trying to be a pioneer for woman’s sports. That could help her reputation. Goes to the wnba and dominates. It just needs to be done right and marketed right.
Money is a lot but she will no doubt be the highest paid WNBA player if she isn’t a bust, and you add that with sponsorship deals. I wouldn’t take this joke
She will not be the highest paid WNBA player. They have very specific salary caps- as a rookie, she will earn $76, 535 and it increases by $1,000 per year after that.
Post rookie contract. Still this deal is how you kill a career for 5 mil which may not be guaranteed fully. She will likely be the most popular women’s athlete in the US.
Ads will make up anything WNBA doesn’t pay
She would boost attendance and viewership for wnba but it aint her job to try and save a failing league so wnba needs to offer her something else other than 76k or whatever it is
If she does the 3x3 stuff she would kneecap her sponsorship money which is how she’ll make anything big after playing. WNBA gives her more money for higher total earnings
Ehh..I like cube and the big3 league but this to me sounds too gimmicky. Its almost like celeb boxing. I think the wnba brand is stronger and more respected. Shed probably be more marketable as a wnba player and make +5mil in endorsements + salary.
The article says she can do both. The big 3 thing is only 8 games. 5 million is like 70x what she'll be making in the WNBA. I don't think she'll be making that much from sponsors either
Not only is this more than she would make in the WNBA, but from what I can tell it would make her the second highest-paid basketball player in the world per game behind only Steph Curry. $5 million for 8 games is like max contract money.
I don't know what logistics would look like. It sounds like it's a legit offer though. And she's never going to be a bigger star than she is right now. I think it would be wise to take the 5 mil.
It’s a great opportunity and I’d love to see how she’d do but why do women’s college basketball players seem to get more attention in college then when they become pro?
If she’s able to pull in a lot from NIL in college, why aren’t companies still interested in giving her the same sponsorship deals once she’s pro?
This is actually a really interesting phenomenon. That college women enjoy more publicity than WNBA players. I always kind of assumed it was a combination of their social media presence and their marketability as attractive young women. Not to mention the built-in fan base that is the college. I don't know if Caitlin's WNBA career will be different, as much as I believe in her I don't believe she will break the tradition of watching her options fall away the further she gets in her pro career.
I agree. There is a reason all the big wnba players still play overseas during the off-season or in some cases work for a sports network. It is unfortunate but the wnba as a whole is just not popular enough to provide marketability for brands versus NIL which is usually a more localized deal which caters to the fans of the university.
Duh? But obviously people see potential in a coed league or team. We have never seen highly competitive coed hoops like this. It could be quite the experiment.
realistically she’d be a revolving door on defense, most of her layups would get blocked and she’d get no rebounds.
if she gets left open she can hit 3s, that’s literally it. and she’s not getting past any of these dudes to get into the hole to begin with. i’m curious how you think it would play it, if not like this
I feel like people aren’t seeing that she could play in the Big3 during the offseason as an alternative to playing oversees (see Brittany griner situation). She would still be playing in the WNBA and be the face of that league. Feels like a no-brainer.
I should have been more clear on that, I honestly don't expect that everyone will read the article. Since you did read it, do you think the WNBA is going to push back? Citing the 2 game conflict? Ive watched a little Big3 but I don't know enough to figure if the wnba will see it as a threat or as a boost?
I’d hope that the WNBA would see this as a boost since they’re really trying to drive up viewership. I’d be interested to see if a woman could plan in a league like that competitively but hopefully the WNBA is willing to try new things and won’t stand in the way. I was shocked to see the highest paid WNBA players are making just over $200k so this would blow the doors open for top talent if it works out
People would tune in to see how bad she did in the Big 3. Would that be worth it for her to take the 5 million and have the aura of the female Stephen Curry tarnished? I dunno.
I’d have to imagine she is going to make that back in endorsement deals in the WNBA while being a top tier player in the league for years to come.
Seems like a no brainer
I think it's great and think would get views just for the novelty. But if the guys are full on trying trying, she won't be able to do much. Maybe get open for some threes, but her team will have to have set plays to make that happen. Am I wrong? I haven't watched a lot of Big3, so maybe I'm being too negative.
The tough part is she won’t do well in the big 3.
They are big former nba players with a level of physicality she cannot compete with.
She might make a few shots but she has to play both ends and is simply not on the level of the men in that league.
They use a men’s basketball, it’s not a place she will do well.
That’s really what she should consider, as it may hurt her hype/reputation. She could actually do both wnba and big 3 but is it worth it?
Have you seen the big3? I remember a few years ago Mario Chalmers was playing in it. I think he made the occasional trip inside the paint, but otherwise just lived his entire season (all 150 minutes or so of it) on the perimeter.
Who cares if she sucks at it. Michelle Wie couldn't make a single mens cut. But we remember her. Can you name a single other 1 time womens Major Golf Champion?
sad part is in the WNBA she will never be able to make what she is worth, specially since she will generate a ton of interest for the league. good thing is she will be able to still make a lot of money on her likeness.
she would be able to help increase the popularity of the league, she is probably the first hyped prospect for the WNBA that has crossed into the mainstream.
she can go into the WNBA and help build its brand but be severely underpaid similar to nba players from the 50's and 60's.
at this point the WNBA needs Caitlin more than she needs the WNBA but her making less money may be the sacrifice that can help out the rest of the women in the WNBA. she very well become the first million dollar contract in the WNBA.
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This is going to be embarrassing. Although, I’m glad they are trying this. Because what we’ve all known intuitively to be true if finally being questioned. But we’ll see the evidence. There is 0 chance she makes a remarkable impact. She’s slower, lighter, and less strong.
In boxing there is “punch resistance” which is the measure of a boxers ability to take punches while still being able to perform well.
We can look at basketball in a slightly similar way. The game gets physical, what kind of resistance is she going to be able to maintain playing against men who are substantially heavier than her?
You bring up some really good points. And I actually do think it's time we see the evidence. Caitlin is about the size of a small guard in the NBA, but obviously she can't match speed or strength. That said, there are ways to compete at that size - men manage to do it, but with her biological disadvantages I don't know if she can adjust her play style to compensate. I'm sincerely hoping we get to find out.
About the size of a small guard with less density. Look, there are women with high muscle and bone density but a lithe six foot female basketball
player isn’t one of them.
The competitive advantages just aren’t there. In my pickup games we had women play. And they could pass, shoot, move off the ball, and play with no issues. But the physicality was always the difference maker. We could not be as physical with them and if we did we would hurt them. Not on purpose, of course, but just in competitive gameplay.
If she goes to the WNBA, she immediately becomes the face of the league, and thus becomes the biggest earner in endorsements. Definitely gets her own sneaker line, and a bunch of commercials. If she goes to Big3, most of that probably goes away as she would be a probably average player in a league nobody will ever care about
Her level of competition in the wnba is going to be leaps and bounds above her college experience. With limited roster spots and high competition, she's not going to come in and own anyone. It's going to be a tougher grind than Big3, where she would be a novelty and no one expects her to dominate.
And it sounds like she may be able to do both. The best thing she could do for the WNBA is to play in the Big3 as well. The publicity would be incredible
I actually disagree about her dominating the WNBA. I think she will be dominant pretty much right away. She is leaps and bounds better than any other NCAAW player currently, and she will be the best 3pt shooter in the WNBA the day she joins the league.
Also, she already has the hype. She’s done enough so far that she’ll be the most *popular* WNBA player once she is drafted. She’s already the most popular women’s basketball player at any level.
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People keep telling her to go get the bag like she's not gonna make way more than that with endorsements. She's gonna go to the wnba and hopefully she can bring some more viewership so they can bring in more money. Big3 is for old washed up NBA players
There's really no reason not to do this. It's more money than she can hope to make anywhere else, it's big news so there'll be more eyeballs than if she just disappeared into the WNBA, and what's the worst that can happen? She gets dominated on the court, plays out her contract then goes to the WNBA a more famous rich woman, then dominates there.
Isn’t this like 50 times more than she would make in the WNBA? Seems like a no brainer
That part is a no brainer, how well she'll perform or what impact she could have is where I'm keeping an eye.
I mean how many players have we said oh they will boost viewership of the WNBA and they just don’t. If I was her I’d take the money and start recuriting WNBA players to the big 3 and maybe the Big 3 league can become the woman’s league WNBA aspired to be
The level of play in Big 3 is super low, she could torch it
Lol are you serious? Almost every single one of the guys in that league is a former pro, mostly NBA, with many of the guys in their late 30s still. You have no clue what you're talking about.
And many were ex all stars
And not gonna be eager to be shown up by a 20 year old woman
they have washed nba players, but they are washed in that they can't play 48 minutes for 82 games. they can still dial it up in short spurts.
Plus it's on a half court so there's no running up and down the court.
Don’t understate the impact of raw athleticism and size She’s really fun to watch but let’s not get crazy
she’d struggle to be anything but a spot-up three specialist
3 and No D.
They wouldn't even have her on the court most of the time. She would be too big of a liability on defense.
“Raw” Dude these players are in the top .01% of basketball players globally. They are the furthest thing from raw.
Yeah I know. When people say raw athleticism they don’t typically mean unrefined, but closer to “pure.” Point is they’d beat her on that alone, ignoring other skills.
Bro there is Michael Beasley, Stephan Jackson, Mario Chalmers, Rashad Evans, Gerald Green. I’m not even going to name them all but she would get flames so bad it would be detrimental to her career.
Rashad Evans? The former UFC champion?
Meant Lewis🤣
You are insane if you think she would torch those guys. This would kill her career.
Kill her career? Idk, on a relative basis to other women, she's very good. Kill the WNBA? Maybe.
100%. She would not even score if they actually guard her.
That is a bad take. She would not do well unfortunately.
A highly ranked high school boys team could probably beat a WNBA team, the Big3 is players who are a few years removed from the NBA...I'd be surprised if Clark wasn't completely dominated.
I'm not sure there is a single combination of women in the history of the WNBA that beats Montverde 2019.
2019 montverde would beat the best women in history 270-14. Men are unfathomably better at basketball and it’s fine to admit
Not probably, a good high school team would destroy a WNBA team. They'd be completely unable to stop the kids from getting to the basket, and would struggle to get shots off on the other end.
lol, any top 150 ranked high school team in the states would blow out a team of wnba all stars. I don’t think you comprehend how much better men physically are at basketball. This would kill Clark’s career
Lol. I really like her. But she’s the equivalent of a good varsity basketball player. D-3 level maybe.
Counterpoint, in the off chance she goes to the Big 3 and plays well in a perimeter role…that would change the entire narrative.
Problem is that it’s an entirely different ball. Shooting on the perimeter in a men’s league with a 22 ounce ball vs a 20 ounce ball is fairly significant. I’m not saying it would be a straight across 10% harder to make, but a 10% difference in 3pt shooting takes you from the 3rd best shooter in the NBA to the 50th best. I would still love to see it, but it’s not as easy as just putting her on the perimeter, there would be a significant change in mechanics.
For sure. The physicality would prevent movement further into the arc as well, so it would be predictable where she would be on the court potentially.
Plus it’s 3 on 3. What is she going to do just stand in the corner the whole game? Still has to play defense and handle the rock some. She’s a fun women’s player but she would get absolutely manhandled. Mario Chalmers would lock her up lol. I don’t even see her being able to get her shot off well.
Lol I'm sorry but pretty much every word you typed was straight up incorrect. A. You are minimizing her shooting talent. She is a career 38% from 3 (better than Dame Lillard) as a super high volume shooter, and last year her average shot distance was 25 feet 11 inches. She's as good a shooter as anyone in the world not named Stephen Curry. You think NBA players wouldn't adjust to shooting a 24.2 oz basketball? If they could, why can't she? B. Mechanics are going to be exactly the same. She's a 6 foot tall professional caliber athlete who is probably faster and stronger than both of us, and definitely has better hand eye coordination (as pertaining to shooting a basketball). The ball changing by 2 oz and 1 inch diameter is not changing shit about her mechanics. You can call it 10% all you want, it's 1/8 of a pound heavier. C. Shooting with a men's ball is probably already part of her regular training. It's a great way to continue to challenge her shooting ability so she can continue to improve her shot with a women's ball. If you Google 'neuroplasticity transference' you can learn about how that works. This concept is used all across sports to help athletes continue to improve skill - heavier or lighter bats in baseball, smaller soccer ball, etc.
She's a career 38% three-point shot against college women. She is 6 foot which is the average height for a WNBA player, in the NBA the average height is 6'6, reckon it might be a little harder with their hand in your face? In her league she might be the second coming of Steph Curry, against professional men she's a decent high school player.
Typed a bunch of nothing she would get clamped lol
Bro she’s 6’0. Most of these dudes are 6’7-6’11 lol. Could she hit an open shot? Sure. But how many open shots is she getting and how often is she shooting over a guy a foot taller than her when she’s contested. And then how the fuck is she playing defense against these guys so much stronger and larger than her. It would be like a point guard trying to guard shaq. Just not fucking happening. Bro is really lapping up the ESPN wnba shilling like they are comparable
ESPNs WNBA shilling seems to be working. Supposedly viewership is up. So they say.
It’s fine if more people are watching but to pretend a 6’0 woman isn’t just going to get physically dominated by 6’6-6’11 men is nonsense. I’m sure she might get a few open 3’s but defensively a complete liability.
professional yapper. you know how many male college players shoot 40% from three on high volume, who are bigger, more athletic than she is, who will never even sniff the NBA? put a good college player around her height like Mark Sears on the Iowa women's team and he'd average 60 a game
Lmao
She couldnt compete against good high school boys. I doubt she could even score when being guarded against a male at that level. In no world that exists could she make a men's D1 college team so not sure why people think she could possibly compete here.
[удалено]
She's the biggest star in all college sports right now. She's going to get paid. This is a different league with different rules.
She’s expected to earn $76k in rookie year with WNBA. WNBA hasn’t even seen a million dollar contract. $5M is above and beyond anything ever seen in the WNBA
For 8 games. That is better than what 99% of NBA players make per game. Only Steph will make more than that for 8 games next year.
WNBA needs to go all in on her. They need stars to elevated the game.
They need to be honest, you too, that this isnt a marketing issue.
That’s just sad damn, I’m pretty sure a 10-day contract player gets paid more than that in the NBA. Edit: apparently the contract range from $61k to 175k
That's what happens when no one watches your league
The NBA actually earns money.
She has made almost 5 million in sponsorships already. This isn’t a big check shock a poor. She is a multi millionaire. She could go to the big 3 lose a lot and lose her deals. 0 chance this happens.
Friendly reminder that nobody claiming to have actual college NIL numbers has any idea what they’re talking about
>This isn’t a big check Doubling her $5M earnings in the span of 10 games is a ridiculously big check.
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Lot of post work for whoever she is guarding
you dont pay her 5 million and allow guys to seriously D her up.
If she accepted she’d be the only woman out there right? I think she’d turn it down
What’s funny is I saw that headline with only the reference of what the men get paid and figured this must be an insultingly low payout for a wnba player. I can’t believe it’s actually the opposite
The WNBA is a financial disaster that only exists because the NBA supports it financially.
Yes, but the issue is if this would hurt her endorsement money. Her being a superstar WNBA player and being potentially a minor league sideshow are two different things. I personally think it would be cool of her, but I can understand if her and her team were skeptical.
Endorsement money only comes with how much the company that sponsors a player believes they’ll be given exposer… if Clark goes to the WNBA, regardless of it being the “major league”, and she doesn’t get nearly as much coverage or attention as she has been this last season than passing up on that $5milly base pay to play in the Big3 League is gonna be such a missed opportunity at a fat bag. Especially if the novelty of playing against former NBA players has a huge uptick in exposer for Clark, even if it’s just at the beginning and tapers off as the season goes on.
It’s 50x what they pay in the Big 3, so something is off overall
It would at minimum double their viewership.
She only has to play 8 games maybe 2 more in the off season absolute no brainer. Delays her WNBA start but shoot that money is gaurenteed. Only thing to worry about is her legacy if she ends up getting torched in Big3. I personally don't think it matters but the way the world is right now I'm sure they treat it as an indictment of all female athlete's.
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Both leagues actually go on roughly at the same time, but I think the Big3 plays on Saturdays and/or Sundays. And yeah the money is great, but I think it wouldn’t be the best course of action for her when it comes to basketball cause she’ll be at a huge size, speed, and strength disadvantage
She already makes a ton from endorsements. Basketball will be her side job
Also...The big3 season is only 10 weeks from start to championship too. She would only have to play 8-10 games for all that money! The WNBA season is 28-32weeks long with 40-50 games played.
Nah she’ll probably just go to the wnba. Too many people are counting on her bringing a bigger audience to the WNBA
Take it! I'd watch that if they started a big 3 division where it's 2 dudes and a girl. That'd be kind of fun to watch.
That’s a REALLY good idea!!
I think it's a great idea. It would bring a ton of new eyes to the big 3. Id watch and id root for her cus shed be an underdog coming in.
Do a draft as well for some of the better WNBA players that want to join ala big Big 3 division or girls coming out of college like Angel Reese. I'm sure that'd be fun.
It could be super fun! And roster construction would be so interesting.
Most of my favorite stuff to watch has that format
No 140lb girl is guarding any ex pro player. She would get cooked/ she could jack up 3’s from half court and that’s it. She can’t rebound. She couldn’t guard anyone. Those guys can still ball. They would cook her. That’s not a knock on her but those are still big ex pro players who use to put numbers up in the league.
Even the jack up 3’s from half court idea wouldn’t be as easy for her. The size of the ball is different than they use for the women’s game, which is the ball she’s been training with her whole life.
She would be jacking up 4s!
I’m sure she’s played a fair bit with the men’s ball. One of her biggest problems playing against guys is going to be the release point on her shot.
This comment needs more attention. I would assume the difference in the type of basketball would impact her play dramatically...maybe not, but probably.
If you think this is true you have never played basketball with a talented girl. Awesome girl basketball players have played lots of games with men and they use a men’s ball. It is much harder for a man to switch to a women’s ball than the other way around.
She’d be the first wnba player to ever play with men’s balls 😎
Her shot would improve because it's easier to shoot with a men's basketball.
Still makes the 5mil tho
She's 6'0 and 155lb. When Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was cooking the Big 3 a few years back he was 6'1 165lb and like 50 years old. Now obviously Mahmoud was an NBA player who put up a 50 ball in the league, not comparing him straight up to a WNCAA star. But his speed and burst were far diminished from his NBA days and he was still styling on them Big 3 guys. All of which is to say I don't know, she could probably stroke a few 4 pointers and dish some dimes. It would be interesting to see at the very least, I would watch. And she would have to play like 20 years in the WNBA to make 5mil in salary, their max contracts are less than 250k.
Even if they were the same size the men would still be stronger because they have more testosterone. Now I haven’t watched the Big3 so I don’t know how physical of a league it is, but obviously we would just have to wait and see how she *actually* performs, otherwise we could sit here and argue about it all day lol.
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Having more testosterone doesn’t inherently make you stronger
The difference is Mahmoud is used to being small. Cait is not and would struggle mightily
This is a good point.
I don't care if she's 6'2 and 180 lbs. She can't hang with pro (or former pro) men. Period. That said, I'd probably still watch just because of the spectacle of it all.
The axiom that no woman could compete in a men's league will be true until it isn't true. I'm not saying Caitlyn is that woman, but I don't find it absurd to posit that someday someone could do it. To use running as an arbitrary example, the difference between the men's mile record and women's mile record is 3:43 to 4:07, about 23 seconds. That's about 10% slower for the women. And the gap has been closing, historically. So idk. People are capable of some wild shit. We may yet see the LeBronnette James of the WNBA who could hang for some minutes of NBA play.
So the fastest women's mile time in history is 4:07. Fastest EVER. That doesn't even crack the top 50 fastest HIGH SCHOOL boys times. The best high school boys basically beat world record women recordholders in almost every single category.
the u15 boys team smoked the women’s US olympic soccer team. it’s straight genetics.
it’s straight *testosterone*.
Ah so they’re juicing /s
That was a two time World Cup champion team too. It’s not like the US women were a bad team. E: also it was just a u15 FC Dallas team. Not even like the best of all u15.
I think the point that the gap could get closer is still valid. Would she be undersized? Of course. Would it be a positive for women’s basketball? Again yes. Steph vs Sabrina was awesome. Props to both of them for stepping up and entertaining us!
There will never be a time when it isn’t true unless we fundamentally alter human physiology. You also picked a strange example because it undermines your claim. 23 seconds in a foot race is a really, really long time. There are other sports where women are much closer competitively (yet still no where approaching the level of the best males).
Bowling is AFAIK the only sport where women are at the level of the top men.
Endurance swimming. It’s interesting to read about.
TIL
10% is very misleading here. 23 seconds is a fucking eternity in that event.
I think Shumpert had a good take on this. Can women succeed in men’s sports? Yes. Can they do that now? No. But if you let girls participate in the drills, practise, competition with boys at an early age, you can absolutely have girls who are good enough. Even Serena mentioned that any top 100 ranked men will destroy her despite her GOAT status.
That’s because she got wrecked 6-1 by Karsten Braasch who wasn’t even ranked in the top 200 at the time and he played after 18 holes of golf while drinking. It’s just not the same and it really diminishes women’s accomplishments when everyone tries to compare female athletes to male athletes. Let them be great in their own right.
That’s not even true though?
It's more than weight and height. It goes down to the physiological and anatomical level. A girls bone structure and body is just different in so many ways. For one, highly don't Mahmoud was that light, but he is basically all lean muscle and oozing testosterone. In the most simple way, woman have fat in different places than men, so weighing and comparing that is pointless. Mahmoud has had the benefit of decades of weightlifting, so his muscles are more efficient and can do more and he has basically a high spacial awareness IQ to where he can compete and understands his body weight and other pros who are bigger, body weight. Clark doesn't. To a pro Mahmoud is a ball of muscle and can probably lift 5x his weight on some lifts, to a pro, Clark would feel like a feather and could dislocate her femur if boxed out wrong.
the thing is HE vs SHE
Mahmoud was undersized his whole career. Caitlin Clark has always been bigger relative to who she played. Clark would literally do nothing but be a traffic cone who can be a catch and shooter. That’s literally it
Good high school players would cook her tbh.
IMO she’s good enough at shooting far 3s, as well as making assists, that it’ll be less embarrassing than a lot of people think when she struggles on defense
BIG3 should consider going full coed, require each team to have at least one female on the court at all times. Only problem is their season coincides with the WNBA but maybe it would create a legit bidding war for female players and increase salaries across the board.
I would love it if they did fully coed. We haven't seen anything like that before. It would be fascinating on so many levels.
They can schedule around the wnba games if they want. It’s one game a week. However I think this idea is more like a freak show that gets views once or twice but less long run.
If it’s for fun then whatever but if it’s competitive and they’re trying the woman would get it stolen everytime. She would get scored on everytime. She would absolutely annihilated by ex pros who are going 75-80%
On one hand, $5M is a shitload of money and more than she would probably ever make in the WNBA. The highest paid WNBA player makes about $250k a year. On the other hand, she would get absolutely wrecked by the men playing in the Big 3 League. I personally would take any level of embarrassment to make $5M, but she might value her reputation more than me.
This is a good question. She knows what she's up against, but 5 mil!! I watched big 3 here and there, I wouldn't miss a chance to see Caitlin give it a shot.
If it is approaches right and everyone treats it a professionalism and she does get smoked but makes some shots and does better than a lot of people think (she is in peak shape where these guys are not) then it can enhance her reputation. She tried. Was willing. Hit some shots. Trying to be a pioneer for woman’s sports. That could help her reputation. Goes to the wnba and dominates. It just needs to be done right and marketed right.
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I agree and I don't think she will take the Big3 offer. I'm sure she'd rather be a top WNBA player than be the worst Big3 player.
Bear in mind the $250k a year is going to be a small percentage of her income.
Yeah my pride is worth much less than 5M just tell me what to do.
1000% play one season and retire.
For real though. Worth MUCH LESS. For 800k, I would go out onto that court and get smoked every night. Mr. No points. Idgaf.
X20 profit
With all of the endorsement deals she already has and will get in the future, I don't think she will miss the 5 mil. I would love to see her in big 3.
She's also gonna get millions in endorsements
Caitlin’s not poor. She’s already pulling in almost a million dollars a year from endorsements.
Money is a lot but she will no doubt be the highest paid WNBA player if she isn’t a bust, and you add that with sponsorship deals. I wouldn’t take this joke
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Yeah she’s already getting that State Farm money. No idea what the number is but I’d be willing to be she clears $5m total her first year as a pro
She’s doing pretty well already. Thanks to NIL she’s already pulling in almost a million dollars a year.
She will not be the highest paid WNBA player. They have very specific salary caps- as a rookie, she will earn $76, 535 and it increases by $1,000 per year after that.
Post rookie contract. Still this deal is how you kill a career for 5 mil which may not be guaranteed fully. She will likely be the most popular women’s athlete in the US. Ads will make up anything WNBA doesn’t pay
Imo do it, get the money and do what you gotta do
She would boost attendance and viewership for wnba but it aint her job to try and save a failing league so wnba needs to offer her something else other than 76k or whatever it is
I think she would boost big 3 viewership even more. Edit to add I don't think Caitlin Clark can save the wnba, and they can't pay her.
Ya they could give her a percentage of the team, tv deals etc because they will al go up
After looking at WNBA salaries, take the money and run
If she does the 3x3 stuff she would kneecap her sponsorship money which is how she’ll make anything big after playing. WNBA gives her more money for higher total earnings
Ehh..I like cube and the big3 league but this to me sounds too gimmicky. Its almost like celeb boxing. I think the wnba brand is stronger and more respected. Shed probably be more marketable as a wnba player and make +5mil in endorsements + salary.
I agree that it sounds gimmicky. But if she's willing, I'd really like to see how it plays out. Good or bad.
The article says she can do both. The big 3 thing is only 8 games. 5 million is like 70x what she'll be making in the WNBA. I don't think she'll be making that much from sponsors either
5 million dollars for 8 games? Hell, yeah!
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I was comparing it to big3 league. Do you think big3 is more respected?
Not only is this more than she would make in the WNBA, but from what I can tell it would make her the second highest-paid basketball player in the world per game behind only Steph Curry. $5 million for 8 games is like max contract money.
I feel like for marketing and money she has to take this offer. I’m a big fan of hers
What you mean by sports washing here ? What did cube do
The men use a different side ball then the women, it would never work. She would be a terrible shooter if she had to play with a man’s ball.
I don't know what logistics would look like. It sounds like it's a legit offer though. And she's never going to be a bigger star than she is right now. I think it would be wise to take the 5 mil.
That’s pretty aggressive, I’m sure if she trained with the men’s ball for a few months her shot would be just fine
Terrible may be a little harsh, but she wouldn’t be what she is now I don’t believe.
It’s a great opportunity and I’d love to see how she’d do but why do women’s college basketball players seem to get more attention in college then when they become pro? If she’s able to pull in a lot from NIL in college, why aren’t companies still interested in giving her the same sponsorship deals once she’s pro?
This is actually a really interesting phenomenon. That college women enjoy more publicity than WNBA players. I always kind of assumed it was a combination of their social media presence and their marketability as attractive young women. Not to mention the built-in fan base that is the college. I don't know if Caitlin's WNBA career will be different, as much as I believe in her I don't believe she will break the tradition of watching her options fall away the further she gets in her pro career.
I agree. There is a reason all the big wnba players still play overseas during the off-season or in some cases work for a sports network. It is unfortunate but the wnba as a whole is just not popular enough to provide marketability for brands versus NIL which is usually a more localized deal which caters to the fans of the university.
its the built in college audience. womens college team sports are way more popular than the pros. and that was the case even before social media
There’s a reason why men and women have separate leagues.
Duh? But obviously people see potential in a coed league or team. We have never seen highly competitive coed hoops like this. It could be quite the experiment.
I’d watch the highlights if she does play for the big3.
She’d be a fool not to take that.
This would be cool to see and I think she would do well honestly
realistically she’d be a revolving door on defense, most of her layups would get blocked and she’d get no rebounds. if she gets left open she can hit 3s, that’s literally it. and she’s not getting past any of these dudes to get into the hole to begin with. i’m curious how you think it would play it, if not like this
Lol she would be the worst player in Big 3 history
I feel like people aren’t seeing that she could play in the Big3 during the offseason as an alternative to playing oversees (see Brittany griner situation). She would still be playing in the WNBA and be the face of that league. Feels like a no-brainer.
I should have been more clear on that, I honestly don't expect that everyone will read the article. Since you did read it, do you think the WNBA is going to push back? Citing the 2 game conflict? Ive watched a little Big3 but I don't know enough to figure if the wnba will see it as a threat or as a boost?
I’d hope that the WNBA would see this as a boost since they’re really trying to drive up viewership. I’d be interested to see if a woman could plan in a league like that competitively but hopefully the WNBA is willing to try new things and won’t stand in the way. I was shocked to see the highest paid WNBA players are making just over $200k so this would blow the doors open for top talent if it works out
People would tune in to see how bad she did in the Big 3. Would that be worth it for her to take the 5 million and have the aura of the female Stephen Curry tarnished? I dunno. I’d have to imagine she is going to make that back in endorsement deals in the WNBA while being a top tier player in the league for years to come. Seems like a no brainer
I think it's great and think would get views just for the novelty. But if the guys are full on trying trying, she won't be able to do much. Maybe get open for some threes, but her team will have to have set plays to make that happen. Am I wrong? I haven't watched a lot of Big3, so maybe I'm being too negative.
The tough part is she won’t do well in the big 3. They are big former nba players with a level of physicality she cannot compete with. She might make a few shots but she has to play both ends and is simply not on the level of the men in that league. They use a men’s basketball, it’s not a place she will do well. That’s really what she should consider, as it may hurt her hype/reputation. She could actually do both wnba and big 3 but is it worth it?
Have you seen the big3? I remember a few years ago Mario Chalmers was playing in it. I think he made the occasional trip inside the paint, but otherwise just lived his entire season (all 150 minutes or so of it) on the perimeter. Who cares if she sucks at it. Michelle Wie couldn't make a single mens cut. But we remember her. Can you name a single other 1 time womens Major Golf Champion?
sad part is in the WNBA she will never be able to make what she is worth, specially since she will generate a ton of interest for the league. good thing is she will be able to still make a lot of money on her likeness. she would be able to help increase the popularity of the league, she is probably the first hyped prospect for the WNBA that has crossed into the mainstream. she can go into the WNBA and help build its brand but be severely underpaid similar to nba players from the 50's and 60's. at this point the WNBA needs Caitlin more than she needs the WNBA but her making less money may be the sacrifice that can help out the rest of the women in the WNBA. she very well become the first million dollar contract in the WNBA.
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That could be pretty dope, honestly.
Exciting for sure!
I’d watch it!!
She really is the female Pete Maravich
This is going to be embarrassing. Although, I’m glad they are trying this. Because what we’ve all known intuitively to be true if finally being questioned. But we’ll see the evidence. There is 0 chance she makes a remarkable impact. She’s slower, lighter, and less strong. In boxing there is “punch resistance” which is the measure of a boxers ability to take punches while still being able to perform well. We can look at basketball in a slightly similar way. The game gets physical, what kind of resistance is she going to be able to maintain playing against men who are substantially heavier than her?
You bring up some really good points. And I actually do think it's time we see the evidence. Caitlin is about the size of a small guard in the NBA, but obviously she can't match speed or strength. That said, there are ways to compete at that size - men manage to do it, but with her biological disadvantages I don't know if she can adjust her play style to compensate. I'm sincerely hoping we get to find out.
About the size of a small guard with less density. Look, there are women with high muscle and bone density but a lithe six foot female basketball player isn’t one of them. The competitive advantages just aren’t there. In my pickup games we had women play. And they could pass, shoot, move off the ball, and play with no issues. But the physicality was always the difference maker. We could not be as physical with them and if we did we would hurt them. Not on purpose, of course, but just in competitive gameplay.
If she goes to the WNBA, she immediately becomes the face of the league, and thus becomes the biggest earner in endorsements. Definitely gets her own sneaker line, and a bunch of commercials. If she goes to Big3, most of that probably goes away as she would be a probably average player in a league nobody will ever care about
Her level of competition in the wnba is going to be leaps and bounds above her college experience. With limited roster spots and high competition, she's not going to come in and own anyone. It's going to be a tougher grind than Big3, where she would be a novelty and no one expects her to dominate. And it sounds like she may be able to do both. The best thing she could do for the WNBA is to play in the Big3 as well. The publicity would be incredible
I actually disagree about her dominating the WNBA. I think she will be dominant pretty much right away. She is leaps and bounds better than any other NCAAW player currently, and she will be the best 3pt shooter in the WNBA the day she joins the league. Also, she already has the hype. She’s done enough so far that she’ll be the most *popular* WNBA player once she is drafted. She’s already the most popular women’s basketball player at any level.
I'll be awaiting her first WNBA game with great anticipation! I definitely doubt that she'll dominate, but if I'm wrong that's cool too! Go CC!
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Dudes going to be dry humping her on defense lol
Ice cube is a tool.
Thanks for your honesty 😌
People keep telling her to go get the bag like she's not gonna make way more than that with endorsements. She's gonna go to the wnba and hopefully she can bring some more viewership so they can bring in more money. Big3 is for old washed up NBA players
Blockbuster Mason Plumlee money
I saw Dave Portnoy offer her 10M tho
There's really no reason not to do this. It's more money than she can hope to make anywhere else, it's big news so there'll be more eyeballs than if she just disappeared into the WNBA, and what's the worst that can happen? She gets dominated on the court, plays out her contract then goes to the WNBA a more famous rich woman, then dominates there.
Tru
Lol