WNBA draft: Caitlin Clark selected No. 1 by Indiana Fever as Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese head to Chicago

New York
CNN
 — 

Pleasure for ladies’s basketball is probably the best it’s ever been.

And now, lots of the stars from the NCAA girls’s basketball event – together with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, Stanford’s Cameron Brink, LSU’s Angel Reese and South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso – are taking their skills to the WNBA.

As anticipated, Clark, who helped appeal to record-breaking TV audiences and sellouts in arenas across the nation in her last collegiate season, was chosen No. 1 total by the Indiana Fever within the WNBA draft Monday on the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

“I acquired somewhat anxious there earlier than the decide,” Clark mentioned on the ESPN broadcast. She later added: “I’ve dreamed of this second since I used to be in second grade. It’s taken loads of arduous work, loads of ups and downs, however greater than something, simply making an attempt to soak it in.”

Brink went No. 2 total to the Los Angeles Sparks. The Chicago Sky, deciding on third, took Cardoso, whereas Rickea Jackson of Tennessee went No. 4 to the Sparks. Rounding out the highest 5, the Dallas Wings chosen Ohio State’s Jacy Sheldon.

Cardoso, who’s from Brazil, was emotional when reflecting on leaving her house nation again when she was 15 to pursue her skilled basketball dream.

“I had a objective to be right here tonight and provides my household a greater life, so I’m simply so grateful that I used to be in a position to be right here,” she instructed ESPN by tears.

UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards went sixth total to the Washington Mystics. Reese, in the meantime, landed with the Sky at No. 7, becoming a member of forces with fellow rookie Cardoso. Reese was the 2023 Last 4 Most Excellent Participant when LSU gained the nationwide title, with Cardoso incomes the distinction this 12 months after South Carolina accomplished an undefeated season and gained this system’s third nationwide championship.

“Coming again (to LSU) would have been wonderful for me, however I needed extra for myself,” Reese mentioned. “I needed to begin over. I really feel like I had been on a excessive since (profitable) the nationwide championship, and I need to hit all-time low.

“I need to be a rookie once more. I need to be knocked down by vets, and I would like to have the ability to stand up and develop and be a sponge. I’m simply tremendous excited to play with the wonderful gamers and in opposition to wonderful gamers.”

Utah’s Alissa Pili went to the Minnesota Lynx at No. 8. Two gamers from France accomplished the highest 10: The Wings chosen Carla Leite at No. 9, and the Connecticut Solar with the tenth decide selected Leila Lacan.

The gang roared for the hometown New York Liberty’s decide, going with Marquesha Davis of Ole Miss at No. 11. To finish the primary spherical, the Atlanta Dream chosen Australian Nyadiew Puoch with the twelfth decide.

The thrill round Clark, who will probably be paired with final 12 months’s No. 1 total decide, Aliyah Boston, comes with weighty expectations – and potential for extra nationwide audiences. On Wednesday, the WNBA introduced 36 of the Fever’s 40 video games will probably be featured by the WNBA’s nationwide broadcast and streaming companions.

“Caitlin is without doubt one of the most naturally gifted basketball gamers I’ve ever seen enter the WNBA from the school degree,” Fever head coach Christie Sides mentioned. “Her capturing and passing talents captivated a whole viewers of basketball followers, and her skill to make these round her higher was much more evident throughout her collegiate profession. We are able to’t wait to carry her to Indiana and incorporate her into our locker room with a gaggle able to get again to the postseason.”

The Fever had one of many worst data within the league final season, however with a tandem of Boston and Clark, it could possibly be one of many hottest tickets in sports activities.

“I actually know the strain is there. I’m conscious of it,” Clark instructed CNN on the Orange Carpet forward of the draft. “There’s by no means any operating away from it. However I believe for myself, all my confidence comes from the work I put in, comes from my teammates. I do know it is a workforce sport; that’s why I really like basketball. It’s not a person sport and that’s the place all my confidence comes from. That’s all the time what I depend on when moments really feel tense or issues really feel below strain. It’s like that’s what I simply fall again to.”

Clark shouldn’t be the one motive why curiosity within the sport has grown. Removed from it.

Within the common season and NCAA event, there have been a number of faculty stars who delivered on the massive stage – like Cardoso, Reese and Brink.

In the meantime, the WNBA has been stuffed with stars because the league’s inception. That hasn’t modified because the league enters its twenty eighth season.

However an enormous distinction in recent times on the skilled and faculty degree is how way more accessible they’re to observe (and the quantity of media protection they get).

“I do know folks hold saying it’s a historic draft class, however I believe we have to look again on the draft class(es) earlier than us as nicely as a result of they’re the ladies we grew up watching,” Brink instructed CNN on the Orange Carpet. “So, we do it for them. They’re the trailblazers and whereas this draft class is wonderful and I couldn’t be extra happy with us, it’s the ladies earlier than us who’ve actually been doing it.”

Tickets for Monday’s WNBA draft offered out in lower than half-hour.

Forward of Monday’s draft, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert mentioned the league’s objective is to increase to 16 groups and mentioned she is “fairly assured” that might occur by 2028. At the moment at 12 groups, the league will increase to 13 in 2025 with a workforce being added within the San Francisco Bay Space.

In 2023, the WNBA had its most-watched common season in 21 years, and the season-ending WNBA Finals was the most-viewed Finals in 20 years. WNBA attendance was up 16% for the 2023 season in comparison with 2022.

“I really like the place the sport goes proper now and I simply need to be part of the expansion,” Reese instructed CNN on the Orange Carpet. “No matter occurs, I simply need to be part of it.”

In the meantime, the NCAA girls’s event title recreation between South Carolina and Iowa drew almost 19 million average viewers, shattering data to grow to be the most-watched girls’s faculty basketball recreation ever measured by Nielsen.

The sport not solely eclipsed the boys’s last between Purdue and UConn by greater than 4 million viewers, nevertheless it was additionally the most-viewed basketball recreation of the previous 5 years, outpacing any NBA contest throughout that interval, based on Nielsen.

After final 12 months’s heartbreaking nationwide championship recreation defeat, Clark’s final dance with the Hawkeyes nearly resulted in fairytale trend.

Though Iowa ultimately fell on the last hurdle once more – this time by the hands of undefeated South Carolina – Clark’s 2023-24 marketing campaign highlighted the influence she’s had on women’s basketball through her popularity and skillset.

She grew to become the all-time main scorer in each males’s and girls’s Division I faculty basketball in the course of the previous season, was named Naismith Player of the Year for the second consecutive season and had been named to the USA Basketball Ladies’s Nationwide Crew’s 14-player coaching camp roster, maybe paving the best way for an Olympics look at Paris 2024. Nevertheless, Clark was unable to take part as a result of it was held the identical week because the Last 4.

And now, with Clark within the WNBA, that pleasure has been pushed ahead to what she may obtain within the professionals.

Will Clark’s recreation on the skilled degree translate to rising curiosity? Indicators level that manner. However different gamers make that occur, too.

This story has been up to date with further info.