Indiana Fever choose Caitlin Clark as first pick in WNBA Draft

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Caitlin Clark, the College of Iowa sensation and NCAA Division I all-time main scorer was picked first within the WNBA draft on Monday by the Indiana Fever.

Clark, who helped carry the Hawkeyes to the nationwide championship remaining this yr, was broadly anticipated to be chosen as the primary choose.

Her Lousiana State College rival (and off-court buddy) Angel Reese was additionally chosen within the first spherical, with the Chicago Sky drafting the facility ahead seventh total.

In an interview after taking the stage at New York Metropolis’s Brooklyn Academy of Music to simply accept her new jersey, Clark advised ESPN she was “grateful” to be coming into the WNBA, after foregoing her fifth yr of faculty eligibility to enter the draft.

“I’ve dreamed of this second since I used to be in 2nd grade,” the Iowa native mentioned. “It’s taken plenty of onerous work, plenty of ups and downs, however greater than something I’m simply making an attempt to soak it in.”

“I advised my mother earlier than this, ‘I earned it,’ and that’s why I’m so happy with it,” she added.

Expectations will likely be excessive for Clark, who holds the NCAA’s all-time scoring and help data for women and men.

The Fever actually hope she’ll proceed her sensational run when she arrives in Indianapolis. The staff hasn’t been to the playoffs in practically a decade.

After the purpose guard’s choose was introduced, gamers from the NBA’s Indiana Pacers squad shared a video on X welcoming Clark to the state.

The 22-year-old from West Des Moines, Iowa, is credited with serving to enhance viewership for NCAA girls’s basketball.

Throughout final month’s NCAA match, her deadly taking pictures capacity and sharp passes helped entice record-setting viewers numbers.

The ultimate between Iowa and South Carolina attracted a peak of 24 million viewers, topping the boys’s D1 remaining viewers by thousands and thousands and attracting probably the most viewers of any faculty basketball recreation since 2019.

The quarterfinal and semifinal legs of the match additionally broke data for ladies’s faculty basketball viewership.