WNBA is trying to deny Caitlin Clark's full impact, former Marlins president says

Stephanie Kaloi

WNBA is trying to deny Caitlin Clark's full impact, former Marlins president says image

Caitlin Clark is a "unicorn" says former Miami Marlins president David Samson, and the WNBA has "tried to show she is not that."

Samson offered his take in an episode of his podcast "Nothing Personal with David Samson" recently.

In a clip shared on X, Samson notes the recent preseason game between the Indiana Fever and the Brazilian National Team pulled in "1.3 million people [who] watched it on ESPN."

More: Ratings for Caitlin Clark's preseason game just obliterated the NBA… yes, the NBA

"1.3 million people — put that in perspective ... No NBA pre-season game has had that audience in the last seven years. Only two pre-season games in the NBA have had that audience in the last 15 years. More people watch this pre-season game than Game 1 of last year's WNBA finals. No MLB Spring training game has ever come close," he continued.

"The most is when 912,000 people watched the Yankees' vs. Phillies, and that was 20 years ago. 1.3 million people watched Caitlin Clark. It is impossible to have any other conclusion than you are dealing with a unicorn. And what the WNBA's tried to do is show that she's not that."

"They've tried to show that she has been the bridge over which the rest of the league will walk into greener pastures, into better TV deals, into a CBA that changes the life of all the players in the league based on all the excitement and all the revenue that is being generated by Caitlin Clark," Samson also said. "And then you realize that without Caitlin Clark, numbers are good, numbers are improving, but not like this."

Stephanie Kaloi

Stephanie is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. Her journalism career began entirely too long ago and is still her favorite thing to do. She covers women's sports (primarily basketball) and loves writing lengthy reports for no reason about exactly how each WNBA team will and will not succeed in any given season.