Caitlan Takes Her Talent To Indiana
Photo: Shara Talia Taylor – NY Beacon
By Shara Talia Taylor
Women’s basketball continued to bring more fans to the sport Monday night as new talent was selected in the 2024 WNBA Draft and all eyes were on Caitlin Clark.
The record-breaking point guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes Women’s Basketball program was selected by the Indiana Fever as the first overall pick. Clark, who helped attract millions to the NCAA women’s basketball tournament this year, many of her competitors and other talented college stars heard their names called on an emotional night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
“When you’re kind of just sitting at a table waiting for your name to be called I think that really allows emotion to feed you,” Clark shared about how she felt while sharing the moment with her family.
The two-time Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year helped Iowa reach their second straight appearance in the NCAA women’s basketball championship. It was one of many accolades for Clark who also surpassed Pete Maravich to become the NCAA D1 all-time leading scorer in basketball this year.
“Honestly like I feel like this was definitely a little bit more emotional for me and I think that’s because when you’re in the heat of competition you don’t have time to really feel your emotions, you’re so competitive and so fiery you’re not really worried about all that,” she said about playing college basketball.
Her college career came to an end at the national championship as Iowa fell to the South Carolina Gamecocks. Clark said she felt closure with the way her college career ended, playing the maximum number of games her senior year and competing as hard as she could. She announced February 29 she would leave the Hawkeyes to enter the WNBA draft.
Clark teams up with the first overall pick in the 2023 WNBA draft Aliyah Boston and is also joined by Ohio State guard Celeste TaylorofValley Stream, N.Y., who the Fever selected as the No. 15 overall pick.
The Los Angeles Sparks selected Stanford forward Cameron Brink as the 2nd overall pick and the Chicago Sky chose South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso as the 3rd pick. Cardoso helped the Gamecocks complete a perfect season ending with the NCAA championship.
LSU forward Angel Reese will join Cardoso after she was chosen as 7th overall pick by the Sky. Reese helped lead LSU to a national championship during the 2022-23 season and was awarded the 2024 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Player of the Year for Women’s Basketball. “I’m just super excited to play with amazing players and against amazing players,” Reese said. “This league is really competitive and I’m a competitive player.”
Back at home, the New York Liberty selected Ole Miss guard Marquesha Davis with the 11th overall pick. They also added 17th pick guard Esmery Martin, 23rd pick forward Jessika Carter and 32nd pick forward Kaitlyn Davis.
The Big East Conference was also represented as two players from UConn were drafted. The Washington Mystics selected Aaliyah Edwards as the 6th pick and with the No. 14 pick the Seattle Storm selected Nika Mühl.
WNBA draft tickets for spectators sold out within 15 minutes of going on sale. Now the anticipation for the home opening games begins. The WNBA regular season starts May 14.
