David Burnett Sr @SportsSense

I asked my Ai to calculate a true value and impact of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, whose TV ratings dwarf all other WNBA teams, and compare favorably with NBA TV ratings. The following are the Ai findings: “If the Indiana Fever could break away from the WNBA’s collective bargaining model and sell their media rights independently on the open market—similar to Notre Dame Football in college sports—their standalone media rights value in 2026 would be worth between $85 million and $120 million annually. Under the current collective 11-year, $2.2 billion WNBA media rights agreement ($200 million/year divided among 13–14 franchises), the Fever receive roughly $14 million to $16 million per year. Selling independently would yield a 6x to 8x premium over their current collective distribution. 1. The NBA Pro-Rata Benchmark: ~$88 Million / Year To calculate direct parity against the NBA’s 2026 media deal ($76 billion over 11 years, or ~$6.9 billion per season across 30 teams)” In truth, this is the “Caitlin Clark Effect”. The Fever are the Lakers of the WNBA, largely due to the impact and cultural significance of a single player - Caitlin Clark.  Unfortunately neither the Fever nor Caitlin Clark are able to benefit fully from their impact on the WNBA and women’s basketball.

The WNBA needs a Skywalker - a woman whose skills are often above the rim and physically spectacular. I’m not talking crazy. I hope that young lady exists or is in development. That will change the narrative completely and save the WNBA from petty politics social agendas, and back stabbing. It would certainly shut up some small minded men.

To say that I am outraged is an understatement. There was a total of one Kelsey Mitchell Indiana Fever jersey/shirt at the local Dick’s store. There were maybe 50 Lexi Hull shirts. What’s going on? I understand the number of Caitlin Clark shirts. She’s the star of the league and justifies the attention and the marketing, but Kelsey Mitchell is one of the leading scorers in the WNBA and just tied an all-time WNBA record for consecutive 20 point games and is in the discussion for MVP of the league. There is no excuse whatsoever for the lack of product for Kelsey. There were Sophie Cunningham shirts which I understand because she took a controversial political stand. But for there to be one, just one, Kelsey Mitchell T-shirt is a disgrace and dozens of Lexi Hull shirts, there’s something wrong with that. Somebody explain this to me. PS, I have nothing against Lexi Hull but she’s not a star, a role player, and she has plenty of product. Help me understand it.

Do with this fact what you will: Most WNBA teams regularly practice with and against men. It has been standard workout regimen throughout the league since the WNBA was founded 30 years ago.

At what point will Caitlin Clark stop trying to force passes in the paint to teammates who can’t catch the ball? She’s close enough to the basket to lay the ball up herself. Sometimes it seems that she’s trying to pad her assist numbers. She’s got the green light - she needs to use it dammit!

@jasonwhitlock It’s not a real issue. Everyone worrying about trans players competing in women’s sports is being misled. There is not and never has been a title wave of trans-women over running and infiltrating women sports. This is simply father for the phony culture wars.

A lot of so‑called experts have been weighing in on the “health” of the WNBA as it hits 30 years. Most of those takes are surface‑level — no depth, no historical perspective, and definitely no intellectual honesty. So I decided to do some actual research. Specifically, I looked at what the NBA was doing in its own 30th season back in 1975–76. If we’re going to talk about the WNBA’s trajectory, we should at least understand the NBA’s reality at the same milestone. The NBA’s 30th season ran from October 23, 1975 to June 6, 1976, with 18 teams and games airing on CBS. Boston beat Phoenix 4–2 for its 13th title, Jo Jo White took home Finals MVP, and Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar won league MVP even though the Lakers missed the playoffs — still the only time that’s ever happened. Economically, the league was just crawling out of its dark era. Kareem was the highest‑paid player at $650,000. The next tier sat around $250k–$325k. The average salary hovered near $130,000 — a jump from about $35,000 just five years earlier. Minimum scale had hit $30,000 in the late ’60s and wouldn’t reach $75,000 until the mid‑’80s, so bottom‑tier roster guys were making roughly $25k–$40k, with rookies earning $15k–$20k. Attendance? Roughly 8,000 a night. Half‑full arenas were normal. Atlanta averaged 5,556 at home. The New Orleans Jazz doubled their crowd to 12,519 only after moving into the Superdome. And television? CBS was still tape‑delaying weeknight playoff games to 11:30 p.m. That practice didn’t end until Game 3 of the 1986 Western Conference Finals. So the entire 1975–76 season — the NBA’s 30th — existed fully in the tape‑delay era, with only the Finals guaranteed to air live.

@jakequery I think the pressure of everything may be reaching a dangerous point for Caitlin. Her actions including her body language suggest signs of serious emotional distress. Last night alarmed me. I’m a Caitlin fan and want her and the Fever to succeed, but I believe the grievances against her and outsized expectations her fans have for her may be too much.

It’s becoming clearer every day that Caitlin Clark isn’t just a basketball story — she’s a Trojan horse, a delivery system for a whole treasure chest of American anxieties. Good ones, bad ones, and some that smell like they’ve been left in the sun. Because suddenly, through Caitlin Clark, people feel like they’ve got permission to take shots at the WNBA — and not basketball shots. I mean cultural shots. Social shots. Shots at women, shots at lesbians, shots at Black women. And they get to do it under the protective umbrella of “I’m just defending this endangered straight white girl in a league full of Black lesbians.” That’s the disguise. That’s the costume. That’s the horse. And it’s wild, because we just lived through this same playbook with trans women. Statistically tiny group — barely a rounding error — but the country inflated it like it was COVID. “Trans women are everywhere! They’re taking over!” No they weren’t. But that panic swung an election. It became a political Swiss Army knife. And now the same energy is being repurposed: “Let’s talk about Caitlin Clark so we can talk about everything else we’re actually mad about.” And suddenly the WNBA is “poorly run.” Why? Because a star showed up? Because a star got popular? The league’s been around for decades. Cathy Engelbert’s been running it for seven years. It wasn’t “poorly run” until America discovered a white girl who shoots from the logo. And look — Caitlin Clark is great. She’s legitimately great. But she didn’t descend from the heavens. She was one of many great college players. She just happened to score more than anybody else. That’s it. That’s the whole origin story. But scoring the most doesn’t automatically make you the face of the sport. Pete Maravich scored more points than anybody in college history. Did he become the symbol of basketball? No. It was Kareem. It was always going to be Kareem. Pete was dazzling, but he was dazzling on losing teams. He was a stylistic icon, not the center of the basketball universe. And that’s what’s happening now. Caitlin Clark is being turned into a symbol — not by the league, not by the players — but by the culture. She’s the horse. And inside the horse? All the stuff people really want to talk about but don’t want to say out loud. That’s the game. That’s the play. And we’re watching it unfold in real time.

Real Fellas Talk Sports x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Real Fellas Talk Sports x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

@imane_assi @jakequery She’s gotta hit more shots.

@jakequery why is it in the whole Caitlin Clark “crisis” that no one including yourself is willing to point out the elephant in the room? And that is for the great three-point shooter that she is, Caitlin Clark is not even in the top 20 or 30 in three-point shooting percentage this season. Her whole mystique is based on shooting from the logo and other long range shots. The problems with Caitlin Clark would go away immediately if she was hitting a higher percentage of her shots and you don’t even talk about that. I’m a Caitlin Clark fan a big fan, but I’m not blind. The Fieldhouse is not sold out anymore and she’s not packing the arenas of other teams anymore.

Thanks Jake for mentioning this on your show

Real Fellas Talk Sports x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Real Fellas Talk Sports x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Real Fellas Talk Sports x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Real Fellas Talk Sports x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Real Fellas Talk Sports x.com/i/broadcasts/1…