The Indiana Fever are currently looking to usher in an unprecedented era of prosperity to both themselves and the WNBA as a whole after recently selecting phenom prospect Caitlin Clark with the number one overall pick in last month's WNBA Draft. Clark put together arguably the greatest career of any women's collegiate athlete in history during her time with the Hawkeyes, leading her team to two straight national championship game appearances and becoming the sport's all-time leading scorer in the process at the college level before joining the Fever.
One person who isn't so sure about what Clark's impact on the WNBA will be is former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, who recently took to his account on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter, to take a savage shot at the WNBA in the midst of Clark's arrival, likening Clark's presence in the league to a nice sports car parked in front of a broken down house.
“Caitlin Clark in the WNBA,” wrote Brown in his simple caption.
Of course, Antonio Brown's X account has garnered a somewhat controversial reputation over the years, as the legendary wide receiver has taken shots at various people and entities with little regard for some of the fallout of his words.
Can Caitlin Clark change the WNBA landscape?
Caitlin Clark is viewed as a once in the generation type of prospect in most WNBA circles, and has already seen her impact felt with increased jersey sales, as well as with visiting teams on the Fever's schedule shifting their venues for that game to larger arenas for when Clark and the Fever come to town.
Although she is no doubt aware of her significance on the sport as a whole, it seems that Clark's primary focus at this point is helping the Fever win basketball games.
“No matter what happens there's going to be expectations and pressure on my shoulders and pressure on this team to be really good,” Clark said, per ESPN (via the Associated Press). “That's how you want it. We wouldn't want anything else. We want people showing up to our games, people expecting us to win a lot of basketball games this year and I'm expecting myself to play really well. I don't think it's anything that's ever been different for me.”
One of Clark's teammates will be fellow Fever star Aliyah Boston, who seems eager to take the floor with her new running mate.
“Caitlin has a different eye for the game,” Boston said. “You're able to see how well she passes the ball and how well she shoots it. You see her communicating, you see the way she can find you, I mean her passes are tremendous. I'm like, ‘OK, I'll get a touch, just let me get down there' just because of how well she passes it.”
In any case, it remains to be seen whether Clark's presence will fully get the WNBA out of the “broken down house” light that Antonio Brown apparently currently sees it in.