Jason Martin: “Look, it proved its point in the moment. Caitlin Clark is box office. We wanted to pay attention and we did. It was a Sunday afternoon without a ton of competition, but I think the bigger point is this...
This felt like THE moment to watch this sport that will never come again. It felt like a moment in time. It felt like this is one you want to have been a part of in some way, shape, or form because it's not going to happen again. There’s been players with outstanding college careers but nothing like this. The way this was covered, the way we watched it all year, the various records, the amount of articles that were written, the storyline dating back to the LSU game last year with Angel Reese, this was just different. Unfortunately for women's basketball, this to me was the peak of the sport and I don't see it getting back here. Because you can't duplicate this, you couldn't you couldn't if you tried. You hope if you're the WNBA that you can catch just SOME of the drift off of this and carry that a little ways. I have my doubts.
I think there will be a curiosity factor early on but they maximized what they had. They put on a very good product. I thought that UConn-Iowa game was outstanding entertainment, I enjoyed that LSU-Iowa game a lot as well. That was a fun dramatic environment, it was a loud crowd, I thought the commentary was good. Everything about the product really works for me, but I knew as I was watching it that this is the peak. Like this right here is not going to be the same next year. There will be some that will come back hoping for that and it just won't feel the same because Caitlin Clark, this story, and everything that surrounded it were so unique -- I call this the ultimate unicorn moment.”
Aaron Torres: “Is there real momentum the WNBA can capitalize on?”
Jason Martin: “No. Not to me. I think the only way is if they treat her [Caitlin Clark] like trash and that becomes a national story. If the other players are beating her up and that becomes some kind of a talking point -- like there's a storyline that comes out of all of this and it supplants women's basketball in terms of what's happening on the floor, she's getting fouled hard and all this kind of thing... Maybe that draws a little bit of interest, but even that is more like a sideline tabloid issue honestly.
The college game is infinitely more compelling than the pro game for the women. The one thing that the WNBA will have going for it is that the very staunch left-wing-oriented sports media are going to be in the tank to try and make this a thing. They are going to write WAY MORE than it deserves to try and make this work.
Look at the amount of articles that have been written in the past few weeks and the way that the sport is being talked about as if it's the new hotness... And it's not... Was this a fishbowl or is this something that can be replicated? The answer is ‘NO’ because there's only one Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Clark went from being Jimmer Fredette to Steph Curry. She went from a big-time scorer that couldn't get anywhere in the tournament, to a guy that came within an eyelash of the Final Four, and in her case she went all the way to the championship game. And you even got the great call, and the drama at the end of the UConn game on top of that, and then the New York Post putting out the article that showcased why that was a good call the next day after we were all up in arms the night before -- everything about this worked. Then you had the Peacock game on the Thursday night where she broke the record, you had a little bit of sour grapes coming from one of the old record holders; EVERYTHING worked for this story, and not to mention the media was in the tank to make sure this worked -- and they're going to continue to do that, I just don't think that it has any kind of staying power. I'm not suggesting that's what I'm rooting for, I just have to observe and analyze this based on what I think is most likely to happen.”
Watch Jason Martin of Fox Sports Radio speculate how big of a presence former Iowa Hawkeyes superstar Caitlin Clark will have in the WNBA, as Martin doesn’t believe Clark can continue her meteoric rise to fame in a culturally insignificant professional league that has never been as popular as their sexier college basketball counterparts.
Check out the segment above as Martin details how Clark’s starpower had more to do with a ‘perfect storm’ of convenient antagonists and distinctive storylines along the way that made it one of the most talked about sports seasons of this generation.
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