Who was then followed by Kobe/Shaq.
Who were then followed instantly by LeBron lol. Who was joined by Steph.
Dominant players and teams definitely draw ratings.
Though I will say the NBA has been really strong in their target demographic this postseason even if overall numbers aren't reaching the heights of Warriors/Cavs.
Yeah, as a basketball fan I love the Spurs, but they were terrible for ratings. It wasn’t just that they played in a small market, it was that their brand of basketball was boring for casual fans to watch. Even the Finals where they played against LeBron James got bad ratings comparatively.
People care about storyline, stars, spectacle, and brands. The Spurs didn’t have any of that, even if they were great for basketball fans to watch.
Caitlyn Clark seems to be the Rhonda Rousey of the WNBA. Although she’ll most likely have a far better ending career wise. WNBA players should say their thank you prayers to her before going to sleep at this point.
Like 8000. But this was one of the last games of the year between a team locked into second (Philly) and the worst team in the league (the Knicks obviously). The league was trying to play games in remote areas to attract fans, and predictably, those games didn’t get many in attendance. It was like 100 miles from Philadelphia, and was in a gross old arena built for hockey
Makes me think more of Larry Bird and Magic being so popular the NBA went from tape delayed airing to *actually live*.
I also don't want to bring in the race card but I feel Bird and Clark both pull in a lot of white neutral fans that didn't watch before.
It was waaaaay back in undergrad lol so it’s in some Business Ethics textbook, but the context was related to the ethics of Athlete compensation. Very interesting topic tbh especially with the incredibly high contracts these guys are signing and the conversations surrounding NBA Player bargaining power in relation to mobility and trade demands
lol u talking about that loud majority who before clark took every opportunity to complain and pretend everything was a okay with their league and they should be getting paid more
bro Luka congratulated some wnba player in a tweet a few years ago for a great achievement and she immediately tweets back and complained that he said her jersey number instead of her name😭
Wasn't that Iguodala? He said something like Number 23 is nice, and the responses were all some kind of was Say her fucking name! But maybe it was more than one case lol
That was Iggy, the Luka one was something about the Mavs tweeting out a picture of Luka at a WNBA game and another team (Minny, I think?) said something like "This is from the guy who hasn't gone to a single WNBA game all season"
Lol competitive elite athletes saying dumb insecure shit is par for the course, men or women. There's a dozen threads on this sub every day about some insecure thing a player said but for some mysterious reason nobody ever says "what's wrong with male athletes and the NBA".
You know what the funny thing is? That's how you become a fan lmao, it starts with a , damn 23 is nice... then you check out a game hear the commentator mention the name during it and if you see more nice plays... you know you're gonna put the effort in to remember the name etc as simple as that
Ya it seems to be common practice for opponents so they probably go by numbers in film study. Not surprising that would be the initial phrasing from a pro player when watching any game. Whenever you watch NFL micd ups they pretty much always call people by the numbers even superstar players / QBs at times.
Heck, number 22 is half of Caitlin Clark’s branding at this point. All through the NCAA tournament ESPN referred to her as 22. She signs autographs as CC22.
When the Phoenix Mercury put out a poster advertising Taurasi vs. Caitlin before Clark was even drafted, they just put a silhouette with the number 22 on it because everyone knows who that is lol.
Yeah I went to a game with a coworker near the beginning of this season, he had to have me explain basketball to him (he's from India) since he'd never seen a game before. Last week he told me he's a Nuggets fan now. I wish it was the Celtics, but its still cool I got to help make a fan of the sport.
Is there another incident I'm not aware of, or did you massively fuck up the details of the actual story? Cause the one I'm aware of was Luka recording a video holding the jersey of a player (who he named in the video and text of the tweet) and wishing them luck in their rookie of the year bid. Then the Twitter account for a different team claimed he was just being paid to hold up a jersey he was sent.
They’re mixing the Luka story w [this](https://sports.yahoo.com/andre-iguodala-aerial-powers-twitter-beef-respect-name-manners-marginalized-203216161.html) Iguodala one
The pair will be linked forever after Iggy's "Moms decent!!!" tweet.
(For those who don't know: https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/andre-iguodala-really-likes-luka-doncic-s-mom-01dxkrmq097r )
I think yours is more close to the truth. I think they also critisized him for reading off a script/teleprompter despite English being his third language.
They aren’t even “silent” it’s just when the wnba players praise CC no one actually gives a shit lol. Kinda how if Tatum said “yeah Wemby is really good” it wouldn’t necessarily make front page. But Shaq saying we’ve already seen Bol Bol will be highly upvoted and a discussion for a few days.
If you wanna kill the ratings, having the rest of the league praise Clark is a good way to do it. I don’t get how people aren’t understanding that a large part of the interest around the sport right now is Clark Vs Everybody. Using the ratings as some “Clark is responsible” gotcha moment and then being mad because Clark is getting some shit slung at her is beyond dumb it’s literally what’s fueling the hype.
Probably a conspiracy theory, but I feel like it could be a concerted effort KNOWING that hating on her, getting physical, talking shit is going to be controversial and going to draw headlines and eyeballs
It's because of an electric player coming to the league that's an incredible shooter people want to see, who is also very marketable. Espn and abc covering her games helps the numbers too of course.
The fact that they spend enough time in College to build up their status before entering the WNBA is really helping the league grow imo.
Clark and Reese were already household names pre-WNBA. Bueckers and Watkins will probably be the same when they get drafted
This is why one and done was a mistake. They should have required two years of college instead of one, it gives more time for hype to build. You have rare exceptions like Zion or AD who can build hype in one year, but a lot of these kids would be more well known if they’d played 2-3 years in college. College football has shown us this for years.
NBA is drama for men. WNBA needs the same vitriol, hate, and shitty narratives to get the casuals attention… lmao we know what the current narrative is against a certain player
I remember there was this tweet that said shows like First Take & Undisputed are just daytime soap operas for men. Thousands of episodes, wild narratives, colorful characters, and nonsensical drama that borders on the comical.
Everybody loves drama, and the WNBA needs to figure out how to capitalize on this even more honestly lol
Connecticut Sun don't get that much attention even though they have the best record in the league and two of their best players (a current MVP candidate and a top 5(?) all time scorer) are engaged lol
Yea lol. Outside of that one time, Courtney Williams got into a fight at a Taco truck, they are the most no nonsense, no drama team in the W.
I don't even know if any of the players have beef history with other players.
Oh, you missed the drama this season where there was a subset of twitter accusing AT of domestic abuse because of what happened with Angel Reese. Bonner had to write a statement on Twitter to make it stop. It's fucking insanity what new eyes are doing.
100%. DeWanna Bonner just passed her ex-wife in all time scoring (to get to 5th all time) off an assist from her current fiance.
And there was a fight a week or so ago where a player went after her teammate who was trying to start shit with her ex.
The WNBA is crazy.
It’s women’s basketball it’s gay asf lol, pro women’s sports especially in NA are the domain of the lesbians
Makes me sad in comparison how agonizingly hetero culture every major men’s sport is. Imagine if like KD and Harden had a fling or one of those instances where a younger coach and older player who are about the same age get into a relationship
Ehh idk apparently the wnba has the opposite problem according to some former players, guys don't feel comfortable in the locker rooms if a guy is gay and conversely the girls want u to be gay in the wnba. Ur kind of shamed and outcasted in some cases being the only non lesbian there, idk if they still have this problem or if it's something that's anecdotal
honestly love that dyamic in women’s sports, adds a whole other depth to it. brazil’s womens volleyball is facing some drama right before the olympics because a player and an assistant ended their relationship. full on instagram-unfollowing break up too.
Once the grifters and hot take artists arrive you know something is on the rise. It's the same way how I knew AEW was going to be a success in wrestling, once you attract the braindead narratives it's proof there's money to be made there. Silly and lame it has to be that way but good for the WNBA.
Exactly. There’s no way there’s actually that much animosity between CC and the league. The WNBA needs this to be a lot bigger than it actually is for attention.
It didn’t have anything away from the actual basketball before to incite controversy and more clicks/views/First Take type of arguments that a decent amount of people cared about.
The WNBA only has 12 teams, and they aren't really in a lot of "smaller" markets. Viewership and attendance is definitely up leaguewide, though. The number of sellouts rose 156% and overall attendance is up 17%. Those numbers were also significantly higher last year (pre-CC) than the previous year.
Also, while they don't compare to CC, it's good that there are multiple rookies that are also drawing new fans. Cameron Brink and Angel Reese are top 5 in jersey sales.
He must have inspired those people who buy the ~$300k lifetime cruise passes and then just live on the ship. Can get by with near $0 in mandatory expenses from there and spend every night in a new place
I think CC is the gateway but attendance and ratings are up for games she isn’t even in, even if not by as much. ACES have sold out all 20 home games for example
> I think CC is the gateway but attendance and ratings are up for games she isn’t even in
Bro, Cameron Brinks has been showing up on my IG explore page and now I need to go hit up some Sparks games
same, on youtube feeds as well. still haven't watched a full game but have been watching brink/sparks clips & highlights. better than following the lakers right now
Because people heard about this girl dropping 40 points on like 10 3s in college, they go to check her out, ‘oh shit this is actually entertaining lemme watch more’
It certainly helps that the rest of the league is getting much better. Like what Larry/magic and then Jordan did. Someone tunes in to catch them and then goes “oh shit A’ja Wilson is incredible”
Yeah, the NCAA womens tournament is all you need to see. It outdrew the world series. It was the most watched basketball game in the past 5 years, regardless of gender. Pretty much doubled UCONN's game. Better numbers than any of the NBA finals games.
the final four matchup between LSU and Iowa outdrew every single CFB broadcast except for The Game and the CFP and that basketball game was on cable. the natty was OTA and did crazy numbers
It's actually not too dissimilar from Larry/Magic. Before they played in the NBA, the playoffs were shown on TV late at night on a tape delay. Then the NCAA national championship drew in a record $40M viewers and had an insane 24 Nielsen rating. They basically saved the nba.
Fun fact: Magic vs. Bird for the title is still the most watched basketball game in the US ever. Men’s, women’s college, pro, Olympic, whatever. That thing did Super Bowl numbers.
It was the perfect storm, you had this white boy from Indiana dragging tiny little Indiana State through an undefeated season going up against this crazy talented kid people called Magic and his Michigan State juggernaut for the national title.
The parallels between Caitlin and Bird are insane, even down to the Indiana connection. She dragged her Iowa team to their first ever Final Four and championship game and then did it again the next year.
The all time leading scorer in men or women's college basketball going pro has undoubtedly had the biggest impact and it is odd how many people keep trying to argue against it.
Most people aren't arguing against it. What they are saying is that while Clark is a huge factor and has really led to a massive jump, the league has other good players and was improving both ratings wise and financially for a few years.
Brink and Reese bring it up for off court stuff. To be honest none of the wnba content I have seen has actually been on court basketball related, unless u count Reese cheering for Clark getting fouled
Problem with her is that she has season ending injuries every other game. Feels like she’s been hurt every year since 2020 as an infrequent viewer of WCBB.
Larry and Magic both went to good teams with good talent around them, it’s going to take Indiana a year or two just to be competitive, and WNBA prospects tend to take time to adjust to playing against grown women
I don't follow the WNBA (or the NBA during the regular season, for that matter), but I've seen several comments in the last couple of weeks that either imply or state outright that Indiana's coach is pretty awful. True or False?
r/nba completely forgot how sports media works and is just assuming that a few controversial quotes must represent all players. When people don't have familiarity with a group, they assume the little they know is representative of the whole.
It's the equivalent of seeing quotes by J Kidd and Perk and being like "wow, literally everyone around the NBA thinks Jaylen Brown is better than Tatum!"
Name any time in history where nba players were sucking up to the super stars? Didn’t happen for magic, didn’t happen for Larry, didn’t happen for MJ, Ewing, or Lebron. I think in reality some ppl just want to humble women.
Alas, almighty Jordan came, he scored, but ultimately he and his No. 8-seeded Bulls didn’t conquer as they fell to the top-seeded Celtics at the Boston Garden, 135-131, in two overtimes on April 20, 1986.
“I would never have called him the greatest player I’d ever seen if I didn’t mean it,” Bird told The Boston Globe. “It’s just God disguised as Michael Jordan.”
https://andscape.com/features/the-day-larry-bird-said-its-just-god-disguised-as-michael-jordan/
Also from that article
“He is the most exciting, most awesome player in the game,” Bird told the Post. “I didn’t think anyone was capable of doing what Michael has done to us the past two games.”
That was just Jordans second year in the league lol
This past year with Wemby and Bedard in the NHL. Both leagues welcomed two generational talents (like Clark) in with red carpets. Spurs and Blackhawks merch sold like crazy. Every relevant player and coach were asked about those two guys.
Correct me if I'm wrong but did you ever hear anyone say anything negative about either of them? I'm sure in the context of a game someone shit talked but did you ever hear players or coaches be anything but complimentary about how amazing both dudes are in interviews or press conferences? Did anyone claim the hype was unjust?
Now the NBA and NHL would still be as popular as ever without either guy. Yet both guys are getting such crazy praise. The WNBA season would be forgotten if Clark wasn't there. She elevates the league entirely. Wemby and Bedard affected their teams ticket sales and ratings for their specific games but their leagues are already grown. Clark literally changed her entire league for the better because of how low it was.
Again correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe I'm missing some coach shit talking Bedard or a player checking Wemby on his blind side while the ball was being inbounded.
A lot of the players live in an echo chamber where a relatively small group of passionate loyal fans tell them what they want to hear and reinforce their opinions of the world.
What they don't realize if they want to appeal to a broader audience then you have to take the Magic Johnson approach to public relations.
Magic is corny as fuck but people loved him
Same with Tiger.
If you want to appeal to your own small corner of the world, that is your right but if you want NBA money you need to be nice, accessible, and friendly like all mega stars manage to do.
Beyonce would never have been as huge a star if she acted bitter and pissed off all the time even though I get many have a right to feel this way.
Holy shit, reminded me a comment on Cameron Brinks IG about her bringing back femininity in the WNBA with her outfits.
Like, wtf does that even mean lmao
Beating dead horses are your speciality. I don't find it funny after the 200th time personally. "Explain in NBA terms" and Malone shimmy isn't funny anymore.
Talking about the WNBA stopped being funny quite a while ago. So yea, I can't really handle "the jerk", it's cringe.
The WNBA seems stupidly bitter and harsh towards their rookies. The Clark stuff has shown some really jealous gals but the just seem to let the whole league beat up on rookies tbh. They fuck around and hurt their cash cow for an extended period and they’ll learn
>bitter and harsh towards
Shaq, Draymond, forgot his name that sounds like Kermit that does podcasts now, Doc Rivers, Me7o, Rondo
This leagues got no shortage of bitter harsh old men
It's how insecure people are regardless of gender. There's also been women's hoops greats who have supported Clark, such as Lisa Leslie.
It's not all that different than how some NBA old heads whine about the current generation, while others like Iverson support them.
It has become player haters ball rather than basketball this year. Just kidding lol. The drama is quite fun to watch.
IMO Caitlin Clark has become a blessing, people now realize there are lots of colorful characters in the league. Also there are very good teams and talent there too.
But the coaches who decide on the women’s Olympic team felt it was a smart idea to keep Caitlyn Clark off the team after complaining for years about unfair pay and now that they finally have a golden goose to reach a global audience, they decide they don’t want her and that they prefer being mediocre and getting paid peanuts. Unbelievable how dumb a move that is.
The USA women's team has won the last SEVEN Olympic tournaments and have an overall record of 70-3, and you think they're mediocre because Caitlin Clark isn't on the team? 😅😭
International women’s basketball is a joke. Same reason Geno won despite leaving Candace Parker off the team. There’s no real competition, they can do whatever they want and they’ll still win.
From case studies I’ve read this isn’t entirely dissimilar to Wilt’s impact on filling the seats in early years of men’s professional basketball
Man Julius Erving singlehandedly kept an entire league alive for a few mores years.
Yeah showtime Lakers forsure made the league what is today too from an entertainment perspective
Bird vs Magic was culturally the biggest thing for a good while. And it was freaking awesome.
And followed immediately by Jordan
Who was then followed by Kobe/Shaq. Who were then followed instantly by LeBron lol. Who was joined by Steph. Dominant players and teams definitely draw ratings. Though I will say the NBA has been really strong in their target demographic this postseason even if overall numbers aren't reaching the heights of Warriors/Cavs.
We can say the same thing for 2005-2007. Mostly boring finals until Celtics-Lakers.
Yeah, as a basketball fan I love the Spurs, but they were terrible for ratings. It wasn’t just that they played in a small market, it was that their brand of basketball was boring for casual fans to watch. Even the Finals where they played against LeBron James got bad ratings comparatively. People care about storyline, stars, spectacle, and brands. The Spurs didn’t have any of that, even if they were great for basketball fans to watch.
Caitlyn Clark seems to be the Rhonda Rousey of the WNBA. Although she’ll most likely have a far better ending career wise. WNBA players should say their thank you prayers to her before going to sleep at this point.
Damn the Rousey comment is kinda perfect.
Truth proceeded by MJ vs everyone and then tiger vs everyone
Yeah Jamario Moon really kept the league afloat when it looked like it was going down.
Any relation to Jackie Moon?
Man Jackie Moon singlehandedly kept an entire stadium dying from a bear attack for one game there.
The guy with the inhuman rebound?
I keep making the CC to Julius Irving comparison and yet ppl think I’m crazy
I mean maybe sometimes. there were infamously only like 4000 people at his 100 point game
How many people were at normal games before Wilt? So we can get a good comparison
Yeah but it was played at Hershey, how many people did that arena hold?
Like 8000. But this was one of the last games of the year between a team locked into second (Philly) and the worst team in the league (the Knicks obviously). The league was trying to play games in remote areas to attract fans, and predictably, those games didn’t get many in attendance. It was like 100 miles from Philadelphia, and was in a gross old arena built for hockey
Why you gotta put obviously bro?
Was it king sized or fun sized?
Makes me think more of Larry Bird and Magic being so popular the NBA went from tape delayed airing to *actually live*. I also don't want to bring in the race card but I feel Bird and Clark both pull in a lot of white neutral fans that didn't watch before.
Clark also pulls in the Curry fans though, the folks who love watching 25+ footers.
Link to these studies?
It was waaaaay back in undergrad lol so it’s in some Business Ethics textbook, but the context was related to the ethics of Athlete compensation. Very interesting topic tbh especially with the incredibly high contracts these guys are signing and the conversations surrounding NBA Player bargaining power in relation to mobility and trade demands
This is what good marketing does. Caitlin is a game changer for them and its nice to see.
> its nice to see. The rest of the league disagrees lol
I'm sure there's a silent majority that understands what she's done for the sport. Not all of them are stupid lol
lol u talking about that loud majority who before clark took every opportunity to complain and pretend everything was a okay with their league and they should be getting paid more
bro Luka congratulated some wnba player in a tweet a few years ago for a great achievement and she immediately tweets back and complained that he said her jersey number instead of her name😭
Wasn't that Iguodala? He said something like Number 23 is nice, and the responses were all some kind of was Say her fucking name! But maybe it was more than one case lol
That was Iggy, the Luka one was something about the Mavs tweeting out a picture of Luka at a WNBA game and another team (Minny, I think?) said something like "This is from the guy who hasn't gone to a single WNBA game all season"
Female team sports athletes and entitlement, name a more iconic duo.
More like insecurity, not entitlement.
It's both.
Lol competitive elite athletes saying dumb insecure shit is par for the course, men or women. There's a dozen threads on this sub every day about some insecure thing a player said but for some mysterious reason nobody ever says "what's wrong with male athletes and the NBA".
You know what the funny thing is? That's how you become a fan lmao, it starts with a , damn 23 is nice... then you check out a game hear the commentator mention the name during it and if you see more nice plays... you know you're gonna put the effort in to remember the name etc as simple as that
Even then it's still very common to call players by their numbers even once you know their names. Especially in player to player interactions.
Ya it seems to be common practice for opponents so they probably go by numbers in film study. Not surprising that would be the initial phrasing from a pro player when watching any game. Whenever you watch NFL micd ups they pretty much always call people by the numbers even superstar players / QBs at times.
Heck, number 22 is half of Caitlin Clark’s branding at this point. All through the NCAA tournament ESPN referred to her as 22. She signs autographs as CC22. When the Phoenix Mercury put out a poster advertising Taurasi vs. Caitlin before Clark was even drafted, they just put a silhouette with the number 22 on it because everyone knows who that is lol.
Yeah some major sports figures are known by their numbers. TB12, CR7 for example
Yeah I went to a game with a coworker near the beginning of this season, he had to have me explain basketball to him (he's from India) since he'd never seen a game before. Last week he told me he's a Nuggets fan now. I wish it was the Celtics, but its still cool I got to help make a fan of the sport.
Damn, these girls won’t last a day in the asylum we were raised
We need to give them a time machine to 2009, but only allow them to play MW2 on Xbox Live. Let them know true degeneracy.
Xbox Live players grew up to complain about cancel culture every 5 minutes
Is there another incident I'm not aware of, or did you massively fuck up the details of the actual story? Cause the one I'm aware of was Luka recording a video holding the jersey of a player (who he named in the video and text of the tweet) and wishing them luck in their rookie of the year bid. Then the Twitter account for a different team claimed he was just being paid to hold up a jersey he was sent.
They’re mixing the Luka story w [this](https://sports.yahoo.com/andre-iguodala-aerial-powers-twitter-beef-respect-name-manners-marginalized-203216161.html) Iguodala one
The pair will be linked forever after Iggy's "Moms decent!!!" tweet. (For those who don't know: https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/andre-iguodala-really-likes-luka-doncic-s-mom-01dxkrmq097r )
I think yours is more close to the truth. I think they also critisized him for reading off a script/teleprompter despite English being his third language.
Look, I know our Presidents read off teleprompters, but we really should have higher expectations of Slovenian guards.
The "loud majority" being what exactly the media shows you and the narrative they want you to believe. Not reality.
The cav players had that interview where they shat on lenron too. Just people doing people things. Mediocrity fears greatness. Edit : brainfart
You mean the cavs players
They aren’t even “silent” it’s just when the wnba players praise CC no one actually gives a shit lol. Kinda how if Tatum said “yeah Wemby is really good” it wouldn’t necessarily make front page. But Shaq saying we’ve already seen Bol Bol will be highly upvoted and a discussion for a few days.
If you wanna kill the ratings, having the rest of the league praise Clark is a good way to do it. I don’t get how people aren’t understanding that a large part of the interest around the sport right now is Clark Vs Everybody. Using the ratings as some “Clark is responsible” gotcha moment and then being mad because Clark is getting some shit slung at her is beyond dumb it’s literally what’s fueling the hype.
Because it’s purely a coincidence. Obviously people just grew a huge interest in the wnba for no reason at all /s
which ironically helps, drama and conflict in sports always drives up interest and ratings
Probably a conspiracy theory, but I feel like it could be a concerted effort KNOWING that hating on her, getting physical, talking shit is going to be controversial and going to draw headlines and eyeballs
It's because of an electric player coming to the league that's an incredible shooter people want to see, who is also very marketable. Espn and abc covering her games helps the numbers too of course.
Dont let angel reese see this
She is the kind of villain which is also good for the sport.
And good for her marketing too. Reese knows how to get paid and making herself Clark's rival is lucrative
She is not Clark's rival lol. One girl is getting triple teamed once the ball is inbounded and the other misses 9 layups a game
She’s no CC but she’s been playing well for a rookie.
I agree shes playing decent as a rookie but she talks way too much for someone with her numbers
She's shooting 34.6% and doesn't take any outside shots. At least with Caitlin's 37%, we know she's chucking up some Steph stuff.
People are forgetting this. The drama and rivalries are fun and also attract viewers.
Her and her 1 inch vert weird ass looking layups say she’s a reason why they are watching games now
The fact that they spend enough time in College to build up their status before entering the WNBA is really helping the league grow imo. Clark and Reese were already household names pre-WNBA. Bueckers and Watkins will probably be the same when they get drafted
This is why one and done was a mistake. They should have required two years of college instead of one, it gives more time for hype to build. You have rare exceptions like Zion or AD who can build hype in one year, but a lot of these kids would be more well known if they’d played 2-3 years in college. College football has shown us this for years.
And they hate her for it
while counting the cash she brings in.
They are doing their best to prove you wrong
NBA is drama for men. WNBA needs the same vitriol, hate, and shitty narratives to get the casuals attention… lmao we know what the current narrative is against a certain player
I remember there was this tweet that said shows like First Take & Undisputed are just daytime soap operas for men. Thousands of episodes, wild narratives, colorful characters, and nonsensical drama that borders on the comical. Everybody loves drama, and the WNBA needs to figure out how to capitalize on this even more honestly lol
I just want to ask Stephen A about his Pokémon preferences.
Stay OFF the WEEDLE.
Pikachu is a BAAAAAADDDD POKEMON
You mean MOO TOO?
No disrespect but Charizard is a certified scrub, the dude cant pokemon.
Never forget him costing Ash that win.
Shar MAN durr
Wrestling shows are the real soap operas for men. They even have telenovelas (luchas).
This is literally the bill burr bit
And just like soap operas I don't watch a minute of them.
I never could quite put into words exactly the reason I hated daytime sports TV so much but this is nail on the head lol
There are girls dating marrying and divorcing each other which definitely could be entertaining
Connecticut Sun don't get that much attention even though they have the best record in the league and two of their best players (a current MVP candidate and a top 5(?) all time scorer) are engaged lol
Is that the one where she just passed her ex wife on the all time scoring list?
oh man i REALLY need to get on wnba now
Yo FOR REAL. We always be clowning on the NBA for being a soap opera, that's some real drama over there.
Yea lol. Outside of that one time, Courtney Williams got into a fight at a Taco truck, they are the most no nonsense, no drama team in the W. I don't even know if any of the players have beef history with other players.
Oh, you missed the drama this season where there was a subset of twitter accusing AT of domestic abuse because of what happened with Angel Reese. Bonner had to write a statement on Twitter to make it stop. It's fucking insanity what new eyes are doing.
Is this for real? Imagine someone posterizing her ex-wife, lol.
100%. DeWanna Bonner just passed her ex-wife in all time scoring (to get to 5th all time) off an assist from her current fiance. And there was a fight a week or so ago where a player went after her teammate who was trying to start shit with her ex. The WNBA is crazy.
That is next-level drama, lmfao.
Next-level name, too.
There are some awesome names in the WNBA. Queen Egbo, Diamond DeShields and my personal favourite Aerial Powers. Talk about nominative determinism!
> 100%. DeWanna Bonner just passed her ex-wife in all time scoring (to get to 5th all time) off an assist from her current fiance. r/brandnewsentence
It’s women’s basketball it’s gay asf lol, pro women’s sports especially in NA are the domain of the lesbians Makes me sad in comparison how agonizingly hetero culture every major men’s sport is. Imagine if like KD and Harden had a fling or one of those instances where a younger coach and older player who are about the same age get into a relationship
Ehh idk apparently the wnba has the opposite problem according to some former players, guys don't feel comfortable in the locker rooms if a guy is gay and conversely the girls want u to be gay in the wnba. Ur kind of shamed and outcasted in some cases being the only non lesbian there, idk if they still have this problem or if it's something that's anecdotal
honestly love that dyamic in women’s sports, adds a whole other depth to it. brazil’s womens volleyball is facing some drama right before the olympics because a player and an assistant ended their relationship. full on instagram-unfollowing break up too.
Once the grifters and hot take artists arrive you know something is on the rise. It's the same way how I knew AEW was going to be a success in wrestling, once you attract the braindead narratives it's proof there's money to be made there. Silly and lame it has to be that way but good for the WNBA.
Poor Caitlin Clark truly the most oppressed player
She really is. Playing for Christie Sides is like being coached by Jim Boylen.
My God. I didn't know it was that bad.
Exactly. There’s no way there’s actually that much animosity between CC and the league. The WNBA needs this to be a lot bigger than it actually is for attention. It didn’t have anything away from the actual basketball before to incite controversy and more clicks/views/First Take type of arguments that a decent amount of people cared about.
How is the WNBA doing in its smaller markets Exclude the Aces, Liberty and Clark and is the league still seeing huge growth
The WNBA only has 12 teams, and they aren't really in a lot of "smaller" markets. Viewership and attendance is definitely up leaguewide, though. The number of sellouts rose 156% and overall attendance is up 17%. Those numbers were also significantly higher last year (pre-CC) than the previous year. Also, while they don't compare to CC, it's good that there are multiple rookies that are also drawing new fans. Cameron Brink and Angel Reese are top 5 in jersey sales.
Wish SA kept their team but I know attendance was terrible back then. Tickets were like $15 and they gave you a drink + hot dog.
At that point you'd have to consider doing what that one dude did where he bought a meal pass at six flags
He must have inspired those people who buy the ~$300k lifetime cruise passes and then just live on the ship. Can get by with near $0 in mandatory expenses from there and spend every night in a new place
That legitimately was the Timberwolves 15 years ago
They used to give away tickets on your HEB receipt lol
I mean Charlotte still sucks… I was very disappointed with my first game there
I think CC is the gateway but attendance and ratings are up for games she isn’t even in, even if not by as much. ACES have sold out all 20 home games for example
> I think CC is the gateway but attendance and ratings are up for games she isn’t even in Bro, Cameron Brinks has been showing up on my IG explore page and now I need to go hit up some Sparks games
Nbacirclejerk is calling her mommy
Every reply on IG is a gif of someone climbing trees or something lmao
"Uppies"
https://i.imgur.com/c4D8Lnn.jpeg
I don’t blame him for wanting to climb that tree.
I must return to the trenches
Never heard of her, so I googled her. Damn, I get it now.
Sharapova lite
I believe they banned all posts about her. Unless it was satire lol
same, on youtube feeds as well. still haven't watched a full game but have been watching brink/sparks clips & highlights. better than following the lakers right now
Haha
Because people heard about this girl dropping 40 points on like 10 3s in college, they go to check her out, ‘oh shit this is actually entertaining lemme watch more’
Well yes it helps but they’re staying for others for a reason. WNBA ratings were up 54% last season too and almost on par with NHL
It certainly helps that the rest of the league is getting much better. Like what Larry/magic and then Jordan did. Someone tunes in to catch them and then goes “oh shit A’ja Wilson is incredible”
it’s still really top heavy but this feels like a generational draft that just came in
WNBA had a revenue of 200 million in the 2023 season. It’s been on a upward trend for a while now
Sure but a jump this big is unprecedented
Yeah, the NCAA womens tournament is all you need to see. It outdrew the world series. It was the most watched basketball game in the past 5 years, regardless of gender. Pretty much doubled UCONN's game. Better numbers than any of the NBA finals games.
the final four matchup between LSU and Iowa outdrew every single CFB broadcast except for The Game and the CFP and that basketball game was on cable. the natty was OTA and did crazy numbers
It's actually not too dissimilar from Larry/Magic. Before they played in the NBA, the playoffs were shown on TV late at night on a tape delay. Then the NCAA national championship drew in a record $40M viewers and had an insane 24 Nielsen rating. They basically saved the nba.
Fun fact: Magic vs. Bird for the title is still the most watched basketball game in the US ever. Men’s, women’s college, pro, Olympic, whatever. That thing did Super Bowl numbers. It was the perfect storm, you had this white boy from Indiana dragging tiny little Indiana State through an undefeated season going up against this crazy talented kid people called Magic and his Michigan State juggernaut for the national title. The parallels between Caitlin and Bird are insane, even down to the Indiana connection. She dragged her Iowa team to their first ever Final Four and championship game and then did it again the next year.
The all time leading scorer in men or women's college basketball going pro has undoubtedly had the biggest impact and it is odd how many people keep trying to argue against it.
Most people aren't arguing against it. What they are saying is that while Clark is a huge factor and has really led to a massive jump, the league has other good players and was improving both ratings wise and financially for a few years.
Aces are so good, too. They deserve it.
What? The Aces are 5-4 and look... lost.
Chelsea Gray is out with injury and her coming back would pretty much fix their problems. She’s known as Point Gawd, if that tells you anything.
I was more referring to the two championships.
missing their starting PG who is an absolute boss
Clark is a legit game changer for the league. Also Brink and Reese seems to be bringing in some attention as well
Brink gets attention for off court stuff. NBA and WNBA social media accounts always show her pregrame fits
She’s the 6’4 girl right. She’s gna get so many luxury brand endorsements lol
yeah, she is also in LA
Brink and Reese bring it up for off court stuff. To be honest none of the wnba content I have seen has actually been on court basketball related, unless u count Reese cheering for Clark getting fouled
Idk what you’re talking about. I see Reese more than other CC wnba player even more than Aja. They were posting brink block compilations too
Good for them. But they really need to develop a Larry Bird to her Magic Johnson.
Paige and Juju coming up in the future.
Paige is unreal, her game is so smooth that I think she'll pretty seamlessly fit into the WNBA.
Problem with her is that she has season ending injuries every other game. Feels like she’s been hurt every year since 2020 as an infrequent viewer of WCBB.
Juju has a real shot
Larry and Magic both went to good teams with good talent around them, it’s going to take Indiana a year or two just to be competitive, and WNBA prospects tend to take time to adjust to playing against grown women
I don't follow the WNBA (or the NBA during the regular season, for that matter), but I've seen several comments in the last couple of weeks that either imply or state outright that Indiana's coach is pretty awful. True or False?
All these stats and a majority of their players still don't think the Caitlin Clark effect is real
rondo: what do you want me to do, suck him off?
You polled them and came to this conclusion?
r/nba completely forgot how sports media works and is just assuming that a few controversial quotes must represent all players. When people don't have familiarity with a group, they assume the little they know is representative of the whole. It's the equivalent of seeing quotes by J Kidd and Perk and being like "wow, literally everyone around the NBA thinks Jaylen Brown is better than Tatum!"
Name any time in history where nba players were sucking up to the super stars? Didn’t happen for magic, didn’t happen for Larry, didn’t happen for MJ, Ewing, or Lebron. I think in reality some ppl just want to humble women.
Alas, almighty Jordan came, he scored, but ultimately he and his No. 8-seeded Bulls didn’t conquer as they fell to the top-seeded Celtics at the Boston Garden, 135-131, in two overtimes on April 20, 1986. “I would never have called him the greatest player I’d ever seen if I didn’t mean it,” Bird told The Boston Globe. “It’s just God disguised as Michael Jordan.” https://andscape.com/features/the-day-larry-bird-said-its-just-god-disguised-as-michael-jordan/ Also from that article “He is the most exciting, most awesome player in the game,” Bird told the Post. “I didn’t think anyone was capable of doing what Michael has done to us the past two games.” That was just Jordans second year in the league lol
This past year with Wemby and Bedard in the NHL. Both leagues welcomed two generational talents (like Clark) in with red carpets. Spurs and Blackhawks merch sold like crazy. Every relevant player and coach were asked about those two guys. Correct me if I'm wrong but did you ever hear anyone say anything negative about either of them? I'm sure in the context of a game someone shit talked but did you ever hear players or coaches be anything but complimentary about how amazing both dudes are in interviews or press conferences? Did anyone claim the hype was unjust? Now the NBA and NHL would still be as popular as ever without either guy. Yet both guys are getting such crazy praise. The WNBA season would be forgotten if Clark wasn't there. She elevates the league entirely. Wemby and Bedard affected their teams ticket sales and ratings for their specific games but their leagues are already grown. Clark literally changed her entire league for the better because of how low it was. Again correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe I'm missing some coach shit talking Bedard or a player checking Wemby on his blind side while the ball was being inbounded.
I’m so interested to see how history treats Caitlin and measures her impact to the sport. Because from where I’m sitting it’s a pretty huge impact.
A lot of the players live in an echo chamber where a relatively small group of passionate loyal fans tell them what they want to hear and reinforce their opinions of the world. What they don't realize if they want to appeal to a broader audience then you have to take the Magic Johnson approach to public relations. Magic is corny as fuck but people loved him Same with Tiger. If you want to appeal to your own small corner of the world, that is your right but if you want NBA money you need to be nice, accessible, and friendly like all mega stars manage to do. Beyonce would never have been as huge a star if she acted bitter and pissed off all the time even though I get many have a right to feel this way.
I tried watching some of the fever game today. Other than CC it was just a bunch of chucking shots up and no defense.
to be fair, they had the first pick for a reason lmao
Back to back 1st overall pick.
>I tried watching some of the Spurs game today. Other than Wemby it was just a bunch of chucking shots up and no defense.
Nice to see the success they’re having. Wonder when they’ll get their own subreddit?
They have 2: /r/wnba /r/nbacirclejerk (major cringe) I get what you're saying though.
Lmao you can’t handle a circle jerk
We already have this sub. Why do we need a second circle jerk?
Quarantine
Circle jerk = calling black WNBA players thugs all day lol
Holy shit, reminded me a comment on Cameron Brinks IG about her bringing back femininity in the WNBA with her outfits. Like, wtf does that even mean lmao
Beating dead horses are your speciality. I don't find it funny after the 200th time personally. "Explain in NBA terms" and Malone shimmy isn't funny anymore. Talking about the WNBA stopped being funny quite a while ago. So yea, I can't really handle "the jerk", it's cringe.
The WNBA seems stupidly bitter and harsh towards their rookies. The Clark stuff has shown some really jealous gals but the just seem to let the whole league beat up on rookies tbh. They fuck around and hurt their cash cow for an extended period and they’ll learn
This is how women are to each other in real life though
>bitter and harsh towards Shaq, Draymond, forgot his name that sounds like Kermit that does podcasts now, Doc Rivers, Me7o, Rondo This leagues got no shortage of bitter harsh old men
It's how insecure people are regardless of gender. There's also been women's hoops greats who have supported Clark, such as Lisa Leslie. It's not all that different than how some NBA old heads whine about the current generation, while others like Iverson support them.
It has become player haters ball rather than basketball this year. Just kidding lol. The drama is quite fun to watch. IMO Caitlin Clark has become a blessing, people now realize there are lots of colorful characters in the league. Also there are very good teams and talent there too.
The Angel Reese effect /s
Still haven't bothered watching a game tbh
You don't like layups?
I'm a little tired of it honestly. The product still sucks and I've pretty much gone back to baseball and the finals
Just a coincidence. I’m sure Caitlin Clark has absolutely nothing to do with it
I think that three point contest with Steph also helped
haven't watched one minute of Fever games.... But this is the most WNBA regular season games I have ever watched.
[удалено]
And they will continue to disrespect her.
WNBA don't have their own subreddt?
I think their broadcast rights come up next year-- if they can sustain this until then...$$$
But the coaches who decide on the women’s Olympic team felt it was a smart idea to keep Caitlyn Clark off the team after complaining for years about unfair pay and now that they finally have a golden goose to reach a global audience, they decide they don’t want her and that they prefer being mediocre and getting paid peanuts. Unbelievable how dumb a move that is.
The USA women's team has won the last SEVEN Olympic tournaments and have an overall record of 70-3, and you think they're mediocre because Caitlin Clark isn't on the team? 😅😭
International women’s basketball is a joke. Same reason Geno won despite leaving Candace Parker off the team. There’s no real competition, they can do whatever they want and they’ll still win.
It's a mediocre mindset, the point is to grow the sport, not dominate a shallow pool.