The retired USWNT star said she plans to see Clark and the Indiana Fever play in Seattle and New York this season
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From left: Megan Rapinoe, Caitlin Clark. PHOTO: KAYLA OADDAMS/WIREIMAGE, BRIAN BABINEAU/NBAE VIA GETTY
Even Megan Rapinoe has the Caitlin Clark “fever.”
The retired U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team star, 38, opened up about her fandom of the WNBA and Clark, 22, during a panel this week at the Business of Women’s Sports Summit in New York, saying she “can’t wait” to see the basketball phenom play in person this upcoming season.
“I’m going to the game when they play in Seattle and will be back here for the one in New York,” Rapinoe said, already with two of Clark’s Indiana Fever games on her schedule. “I’m just as big a fan as anyone.”
Clark was the Fever’s No. 1 overall draft pick earlier this month, coming off back-to-back Final Four seasons with the Iowa Hawkeyes in which she became the NCAA Division I’s all-time leading scorer in both men’s and women’s basketball.
The rookie sensation’s jerseys nearly sold out within an hour of the draft pick, and ticket sales soared across the league for games when Clark and the Fever were coming to town.
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Caitlin Clark.MATT KRYGER/NBAE VIA GETTY
The Des Moines, Iowa native has been embraced by fans, fellow athletes, and celebrities as she gears up for a transition from college basketball star to an already trailblazing pro in the WNBA. The boom in college basketball, buoyed by Clark, also led to record-breaking viewership numbers earlier this month during the Final Four and the National Championship game.
“It’s so much more than Caitlin, though,” Rapinoe said Tuesday, according to CBS Sports. “[There’s] a huge storyline around Dawn Staley and her game. It doesn’t look like she’s slowing down. Incredible, undefeated season and the only reason it wasn’t the only thing talked about is because Caitlin was going absolutely bonkers.”
Clark’s Iowa team fell to Staley’s undefeated South Carolina squad 87-75 in the NCAA title game. A week later, Clark was selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA Draft by Indiana.
All About Caitlin Clark’s Parents, Brent and Anne Nizzi-Clark
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Megan Rapinoe.MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY
While the three-point shooting superstar has undoubtedly helped grow the game, Rapinoe believes Clark is merely the next in line in terms of boundary-breaking women’s basketball players.
“Caitlin is standing on the shoulders of Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore and the Dawn Staleys and Lisa Leslies — everybody,” the Olympic gold medalist and three-time World Cup champion said.
That WNBA lineage is similar to the one Rapinoe says she stepped into with the USWNT, who had stars like Michelle Akers and Mia Hamm before players like she and Alex Morgan stepped on the pitch and brought the game to a whole new level.
“I thought a lot about the national team because it’s such a solid foundation — a multigenerational, multi-decade foundation that our team was able to stand on and I was able to stand on, even for our fight for equal pay,” Rapinoe said Tuesday. “That made it possible to really capture a moment and have it not just be a flash in the pan.
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