Stephen A's Take: WNBA is back and so is Ms. Box Office Caitlin Clark.

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I want to give a quick shout out to Caitlyn
Clark and the Indiana Fever, who hosted the Brazilian national
team in Iowa yesterday. The event was a sold out
home coming for Clark as the WNBA preseason tipped off
this weekend. The Indiana Fever beat the Brazilian team one
hundred and eight to forty four, capped off by Clark
making a thirty six foot three pointer. Okay, that was

(00:25):
the same spot on the court that has her number
twenty two logo affixed, and the same spot where she
broke the NCAA women's basketball career scoring record last year.
She finished the exhibition game Sunday with sixteen points, five assis,
and six rebounds. Caitlyn Clark is the real deal. Get
let me get that out the way first. I got
a lot of respect, a lot of love for this

(00:46):
young young lady. I think she's spectacular. I think she's
box office. I think she should have been easily, easily embraced,
and that wasn't the case last year. Just to remind
y'all who she is, I'm just gonna read off some
numbers because you see this. To me, this year, she's
going to be better last year as a rookie, fresh
off of going to the National Championship Game and losing

(01:08):
to South Carolina and then playing less than two months
later her first professional season as a w NBA rookie,
she was the unanimous Rookie of the Year. She was
an All WNBA first teamer. She finished fourth in league
MVP voting. She started all forty regular season games for
the Fever and had a groundbreaking year marked by numerous

(01:30):
w NBA records. She finished the regular season leading rookies
in scoring, field goals made, three point field goals made, assists, steals,
and minutes played. She ended up setting regular season WNBA
records for assist in the season with three hundred and
thirty seven, with three hundred and thirty seven points scored
or assisted on in a season with one thy, five
hundred and twenty points by a rookie with seven hundred

(01:53):
and sixty nine, and three point field goals by a
rookie with one hundred and twenty two. By the way,
she was box office sold out more than anybody, helped
massively increase WNBA ratings, and the only thing stupid that
happened with her is Team USA not putting on the

(02:14):
damn team. She's that special, ladies and gentlemen, And that
was year one. This time around, she's got more rest
and she got to had an entire offseason to prepare
for this full WNBA season that's about to come on.
She's special. She's special. And oh, by the way, Paige

(02:34):
Beckets from Yukon, who's now in Dallas, even though her
team may not be that good, she's gonna be special too.
And I can't wait until my girl Juju Watkins comes
out of college because when she gets herself healthy and
she's on the pro level, look the hell out because
she is spectacular. I can't wait till she gets to

(02:56):
the WNBA. WNBA is it? It's it? It's worthy of
being talked about on an everyday basis. To mcgirl, Shaney
Ogooma k from ESPN Andrea Carter from ESPN, are you
happy now I'm talking about the end of the w
NBA even though I've been talking about it, Janey, she

(03:19):
keeps telling me, y'all, I gotta get the games. When
youre gonna get to the gayete, when you're gonna get
the game, Well, I need a course, I see, I've
had a couple of NBA games over the last couple
of weeks. I sat courtside for both games. How Come
I got how come I'm having trouble getting the court
side seat to w NBA games, But I ain't got
no trouble getting the court side seat the NBA games.
And I'm like, I'm looking for it for free. I'm
willing to pay for it. I'm just saying, I'm just

(03:44):
saying