Longtime NBA Announcer Compares Caitlin Clark To Michael Jordan
11/12/2024 03:51 PM
There's no denying that Caitlin Clark is one of the most popular players that the WNBA has ever had. But she's brought the league so much attention that one longtime announcer believes she's on par with Michael Jordan.
While covering the Knicks-Pacers game yesterday, NBA commentator Mike Breen spoke about Clark - who was well-represented in the audience by loyal fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Breen said that Clark has been so impactful for the Fever that he feels she's on-par with the impact that Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Steph Curry have had for the NBA through the years.
"During the Summer when the Indiana Fever played here with Caitlin Clark, the building was packed every game. The TV ratings of the Fever this Summer for the local telecast were higher than a lot of the Pacers game because of Caitlin Clark," Breen said. "She's doing rating-wise for the WNBA what Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Steph Curry have been doing for the NBA."
Mike Breen talked multiple times about Caitlin's impact on women's basketball during the Knicks vs Pacers broadcast. We need him to call a Fever game!
— correlation (@nosyone4) November 11, 2024
"She's doing rating wise for the WNBA what Michael Jordan, Lebron James, and Steph Curry have been doing for the NBA."
BANG pic.twitter.com/Zdu46IfS5B
The numbers don't lie. 2024 was a banner year for the WNBA with Indiana Fever games in particular doing better than the average NBA game is doing right now.
Per Awful Announcing, the Fever averaged 1.59 million viewers per game in 2024 while the NBA is currently averaging around 1.21 million viewers per game through the first few weeks of the season.
It certainly helps that Clark is well on her way to being a great basketball player already. She won Rookie of the Year, All-Star and All-WNBA First-Team honors this season as she helped the Fever reach the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade.
Time will tell if she becomes the WNBA's equivalent to Michael Jordan though. There are already plenty of all-time great women's basketball players such as Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi who have set the bar extremely high.
But 2024 has shown us that she can compete with the best of the best at a high level, and deliver the kinds of numbers that will give the WNBA a significantly larger footprint on the national sports level.
Is Caitlin Clark the Michael Jordan of the WNBA?
Related: Caitlin Clark Did Something Only Michael Jordan, Steph Curry Have On Friday
