The fate of the Indiana Fever’s franchise changed when the team selected former Iowa Hawkeyes superstar Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 pick of the 2024 WNBA Draft. The most obvious reason for this is that Clark is a generational talent on the court. Her elite sharpshooting, unprecedented playmaking, and ability to make her teammates around her better were guaranteed to make Indiana (who has been a bottom-dweller in the WNBA standings for most of the past decade) into at least an average team. However, Clark’s impact was not constrained to the court. She was the biggest star in women’s basketball history by the time the Fever selected her (and still is, despite missing much of 2025 due to injury), and brought all that stardom attention to her new team. Ticket sales sold out during all of her rookie season games, Clark jerseys and other Fever merchandise skyrocketed, viewership numbers soared, and the Fever found themselves at the center of sports’ presence in pop culture because of No. 22. The impacts of this (
