Feb. 6—Dear Caitlin,
Please come to Indiana.
Not just to visit, but to play the rest of your basketball career.
All you have to do to make this happen, Miss Clark, is forego your last year of college athletic eligibility and declare for the 2024 WNBA draft. Do that, and the Indiana Fever, who have the first pick, will snap you up quicker than you can say Diana Taurasi.
Let me back up here. It would be rude not to congratulate you on becoming a worldwide star over these past several months. Within a few weeks you’ll be the leading scorer in the history of women’s college basketball. They’re selling out arenas wherever you play and breaking TV audience records like glass backboards, too.
You are amazing, and everyone knows it.
If you join the Fever, the entire state of Indiana, from Bippus to Birdseye, will fall head over heels for you.
Sure, you love your home state of Iowa. But know this: Indiana is a lot like Iowa, only with fewer hogs and more basketball courts.
If you stay in college for another year, you run the risk of getting drafted in 2025 by the New York Liberty or the Los Angeles Sparks, or some other franchise in a rat-race city. Heck, places like that even boo their own stars sometimes.
That would never, ever happen in Indianapolis.
How does this sound? Caitlin Clark and Tyrese Haliburton, the Iowa kids, starring for the Fever and the Pacers. Can’t you just see a three-story poster of you and Tyrese hanging on the outside of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, beckoning sell-out crowds?
Absolute royalty, that’s what you and he would be.
I visualize the two of you appearing in national commercials together. As you know, you can make a lot of money off commercials. I understand you’re doing pretty well with endorsements already. We all see the stars in Jake From State Farm’s eyes when he looks at you.
But once you get to the WNBA, you’ll be the face of the league, the face of the pro game. Pretty sure your endorsements will skyrocket, more than making up for the pittance WNBA franchises cough up.
Yes, the money will be very, very good if you come to Indiana. But you strike me as the sort who cares mostly about life’s simpler things, like crossover dribbles and no-look passes.
I hope you and the Hawkeyes win the NCAA title this year. You have a strong squad, so it could happen. Should you stay in Iowa City for another season, your chances won’t be nearly as good, given that at least a couple of your most skilled Iowa teammates will run clean out of eligibility.
But the Fever, with you on board, would be loaded for bear in 2024 and beyond. You know Aliyah Boston, right? And Grace Berger? And Kelsey Mitchell? And NaLyssa Smith? Yep, they would be your teammates. The Fever, who have been really bad over the past few years, are about to get very, very good.
Also, aren’t you getting a little bored with eviscerating inferior competition game after game in college? Within the next few weeks you will have broken pretty much every NCAA record this side of Pete Maravich.
It’s time to start smashing WNBA records against the best players in the world, right?
Plus, playing for the Fever in spring 2024 would give you the opportunity to start doing for pro women’s basketball what you’ve been doing for the college game — winning over millions of new fans with your audacious shooting range and magnetic presence.
In closing, Caitlin, let’s make it easy. Forget about the scoring records, the fan adoration, the multi-million dollar endorsement deals. Heck, even forget that your boyfriend actually works for the Pacers!
Just remember this: You belong in professional basketball. And you belong in Indiana.
Enter that draft on April 15 and you’ll never regret it.
Sincerely,
A Groveling Fever Fan
Editor Scott Underwood’s column appears Tuesdays. Like him on Facebook. Contact him at scott.underwood@heraldbulletin.com or 640-4845.
