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Caitlin Clark’s start in the WNBA with the Indiana Fever seems to be a matter of perception versus reality.
While Clark has not made the same impact on the scoring sheet for Indiana three games in that she typically made at Iowa in her heyday, she’s already in elite company for where other WNBA greats started their careers.
The league shared on social media that Clark scoring 50-plus points and recording 15-plus assists in her first three WNBA games has only been achieved by three other players: Candace Parker, Sue Bird and Nikki McCray-Penson.
Parker, Bird and McCray-Penson are three of the best WNBA players in the league’s history, which should give Clark a substantial amount of reassurance that she’s on a perfectly fine path for having played less than a week of regular season professional basketball.
In elite company 👏
Caitlin Clark joins Candace Parker, Sue Bird and Nikki McCray as the only WNBA players to tally 50+ PTS and 15+ AST in their first 3 career games!#WelcometotheW pic.twitter.com/wfUUb0GSjj
— WNBA (@WNBA) May 18, 2024
Clark is a generational talent, and it feels likely that she’ll join that upper echelon of great WNBA players by the time her career is over.
It’s going to take some time for her to really play at a consistently high level, but her performance so far compared to other league greats shows what thrilling potential is building for the rookie.