College basketball’s biggest star and the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer Caitlin Clark was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever on Monday.
Clark leaves the Iowa Hawkeyes as arguably the best player they will ever recruit, as it has already been announced that her No. 22 will be retired by the program.
Similarly, everyone, including the WNBA and Indiana Fever’s front office knew immediately after she declared for the 2024 WNBA Draft that she would be selected first overall. This was reflected by the Fever’s 40-game season being paired with a 36-game national TV schedule.
As everyone knew well in advance that Clark would be the athlete that draws the attention of a worldwide audience to the WNBA, most were swept up in Clark-mania to give thought to what kind of contract she would be handed as the league’s first overall draft choice. As many would soon come to realize, it’s not as much as anticipated. This is especially true for those that weren’t familiar with WNBA contracts prior to Monday night’s draft.
As a rookie selected in the top four picks of the WNBA Draft, Clark will earn a guaranteed salary of $76,535. For reference, the average WNBA salary in 2023 rose to $147,745 from $102,751 in 2022, and the highest-paid WNBA player heading into 2024 is the Las Vegas Aces’ Jackie Young, earning $252,450 going into the season.
Here he is, the NBA’s general equivalent to Clark. Victor Wembanyama, the 20-year-old, 7-foot-4 Frenchman who was selected with the No. 1 overall selection in the 2023 NBA Draft was meant to lead the NBA further into an era of position-less basketball.
Wembanyama and Clark have similar meaning to their respective leagues: they will change the sport forever. Both of these prospects, Wembanyama from a year ago and Clark prior to Monday night’s draft, were both seen as generational, once-in-a-lifetime players that would draw more viewership from around the world to their respective leagues.
The main difference between the two is that one has been put into a much more favorable position financially after being selected No. 1. Post-2023 NBA Draft, Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs agreed to a four-year rookie-scale contract that provided him with the league-wide, agreed upon base-salary for the first overall pick, just like Clark. Wembanyama, though, earned $12,160,680 for his first NBA season.
