A carnival ambiance descended on Local weather Pledge Enviornment Thursday evening because the Seattle Storm hosted rookie phenom Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever for the second time this season. Clark’s inaugural WNBA season is being trumpeted as a turning level for skilled girls’s basketball. ESPN viewership numbers verify as a lot, as did Thursday’s sellout crowd, the Storm’s third ever full home after Clark’s Seattle debut this Could and Sue Chicken’s final common season dwelling recreation in 2022.
Winners of 4 championships—tied for essentially the most in league historical past—the Storm, one of many WNBA’s premier franchises, are within the midst of a turning-point season themselves. They posted the second-worst profitable proportion in franchise historical past in 2023 however determined in opposition to a rebuild, signing free brokers Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike to consolidate their core of Jewell Loyd and Ezi Magbegor. Sitting pat at 11-6, the fourth greatest document within the league, the technique has paid dividends. The 2023 Loyd present (she set the WNBA’s single season factors document) has given strategy to balanced scoring and a vastly improved protection. Final evening, the Storm appeared intent on proving one thing to the group, lots of whom have been absolutely purchased into the Clark hoopla.
Teenage women sporting Indiana Fever gear gathered on a stage outdoors the KEXP Gathering Area an hour earlier than gametime, snapping photographs with the world within the background. A roving group of older followers wore matching “It’s a Caitlin Factor” tees. In a metropolis with restricted Iowan affiliation, Hawkeyes logos abounded, as followers repped Clark’s alma mater.
The Pences, retirees who relocated from Iowa to Enumclaw, Washington, in 2019, have been attending their first ever Storm Recreation. They’ve adopted Clark since she was on the Midwest highschool circuit, and beforehand traveled to attend her March Insanity video games. “The WNBA is absolutely present,” they mentioned. “Everybody’s following it.”
Storm season ticket holder Jeremy Tags Tarpey, 37, an space workplace supervisor, mentioned he initially thought to promote his seats at a premium. “It’s a distinct crowd right here, due to all these Clark followers.” He wound up attending based mostly on the “vitality” he’d seen throughout Clark’s first Seattle go to, a slender Storm victory on Could 22. “This can be a actually thrilling season for the Storm. Horston is taking part in nice,” he mentioned, referring to Jordan Horston, the crew’s second-year wing.
With the Breanna Stewart and Sue Chicken years within the rearview, the Storm are taking one other swing at competition after a single down season. The Fever, in the meantime, haven’t made the playoffs since 2017. Nonetheless, the Fever want solely look to Storm franchise historical past to see {that a} crew should undergo to succeed. Futile Storm campaigns within the early aughts led to draft choices Chicken and Lauren Jackson. A poor season in 2015 resulted in Stewart. The Fever, deciding on first in every of the final two drafts, have a brilliant future with Clark and College of South Carolina standout Aliyah Boston.
On Thursday, the Storm confirmed touring Fever followers that the long run is perhaps a methods off. Loyd put the jets on early with a trio of first quarter three-pointers and 23 first half factors. She would end with a season-high 34. Magbegor added 18, and Ogwumike—named one of many league’s prime 25 all-time gamers in 2021—added an environment friendly 15 together with three blocks, three steals, and 11 rebounds. NBA star Damian Lillard sat courtside.
With Seattle’s scorching taking pictures and swarming protection, Clark supporters mustered restricted enthusiasm for his or her gravitational star. Clark’s title has been a everlasting headline of late, and never at all times for basketball causes. “Can’t folks simply shut up and watch girls dribble?” requested Washington Put up columnist Karen Attiah. “Provided that the WNBA is greater than 60 p.c Black, it’s exhausting to not really feel like the brand new followers are utilizing Clark as a proxy for their very own points and attitudes about race, sexuality, and gender.”
Clark herself has been preternaturally mature amid the media circus. To look at her on the court docket, even in a shedding battle, explains a part of her recognition. She catapults photographs from extraordinary angles and distances, typically whereas shifting to her left. She flings one-handed passes with an ease and confidence that might get lesser gamers benched. As a result of Clark attended dwelling state Iowa versus a bigger program, her school profession was an limitless David versus Goliath parable, like watching Hoosiers on repeat— and David got here out forward almost each time.
Storm followers may rightfully balk on the flock of newcomers who turned out Thursday to observe a first-year participant rating 15 factors on 9 photographs. In any case, the WNBA has thrived right here for a very long time with out Caitlin Clark. However to date this 12 months, typical dwelling recreation attendance has been within the neighborhood of 8,500. At Fever video games, that quantity has greater than doubled. The hope is that, Clark or no Clark, attendance can meet someplace within the center. This could be a win for longtime followers, for the Seattle Middle, and most significantly, for the Storm, a proud franchise deserving of our help. In that regard, the loudest applause on Thursday got here as area cameras panned courtside to a smiling Chicken and her spouse, Megan Rapinoe. Caitlin Clark is perhaps this 12 months’s basketball sensation. However right here in Seattle, royalty is royalty.