Why basketball star Caitlin Clark is the next sporting icon

Caitlin Clark has her own gravitational pull, and it’s getting stronger by the day. First it sucked in her teammates and coaches at the University of Iowa, then the fans, then the entire state.

As we reach the Final Four of March Madness, the college basketball competition which triggers a great annual American head loss, the entire nation now unavoidably revolves around the hooping abilities of a 22-year-old woman.

To the British sporting psyche, the Clark story makes little sense. This is, after all, college-level women’s basketball. The Boat Race is probably the only university sporting event which draws national attention on an annual basis, and that certainly isn’t attracting anything like the 12.3 million people who watched Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes beat Louisiana State University on Monday night.

In fact very little in global sport, outside elite men’s football, the NFL and the IPL, can command similar eyeballs. Up until three years ago, women’s basketball wasn’t even allowed to use the famous March Madness branding which has made the men’s college game such a success. And now Clark’s NCAA Elite Eight game – the quarter-final – drew in more viewers than last year’s NBA Finals, the pinnacle of global basketball.

The average ticket price for the Final Four game against the University of Connecticut on Friday night is £575. One ticket has gone for as much as £5,000. This is World Cup final money.

The overarching question here is: why? What is drawing celebrities from across America to the 15,000-seater Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City? Why is Clark increasingly mentioned alongside Tiger Woods and Serena Williams as a transformative force for sport? Why is everyone who meets this slender, unassuming Catholic student from Des Moines, Iowa is greatness personified?

Let’s start with the numbers. Clark is now the NCAA Division I all-time top scorer, topping “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s 3,667, a 55-year-old record many thought would never fall. She has won women’s college basketball player of the year twice. She was offered $5m by Ice Cube to join his start-up league, a chance to add to the money she already brings in from Nike, Gatorade and Bose, among others.

Clark has had a similar effect to Steph Curry in the women’s game, altering the angles and dimensions you expect to use on the court with her long-range three-point shooting. Her extraordinary gravity has reshaped how the women’s game is played, before she’s even reached the WNBA.

“It’s the numbers, the records she’s set, the ability to hit the long three-pointers, just her ability to take over games,” John Bohnenkamp, a basketball journalist who has covered all four years of Clark’s Iowa odyssey, tells i. “People gravitate towards that.

“She has really taken it upon herself to be an ambassador. After random games she’ll take off her shoes and give them to a kid. That draws a lot of attention from fans.

He continues: “She’s very approachable. A lot of athletes don’t like the role model part of it, but she really embraces it. It’s a stardom I don’t think you can quantify. It’s everywhere. From five and six-year-olds to eighty-year-olds, everyone has gravitated towards her.

“She loves being the face of the programme, she loves being the face of women’s basketball. She’s just a really good person. She gives honest, very insightful answers. She’s brilliant in a lot of ways. It’s been really fun to be part of that.”

You can tell by the misty-eyed grin with which Bohnenkamp regales stories of Clark’s brilliance just what it’s like to be trapped in her orbit. He remembers a time she waved at him across the court, another where she thanked him for coming after a game.

He talks about the steady creep you now see down the bleachers at the end of her matches, as fans prepare to rush the court at the outside chance of an autograph or a high-five. There was even an IndyCar rally earlier this year, which one of Clark’s sponsors took her to. An audience you would not normally expect to be able to name a women’s basketball player queued for hours to meet her.

Clark’s biggest challenge throughout her short career has been trusting those around her to meet her lofty standards. Brilliance is demanding, and Clark was known for her volatile temper.

She’ll still sometimes let a teammate know exactly what she’s thinking, but that only makes the compliments mean more. Her peers have long appreciated what they’ve got and are doing everything they can to make the most of the ride. When Clark was given a haul of limited-edition Nike shoes for her birthday, she shared them among her teammates. The 22-year-old even hired a yacht on tour last year, now known as the great Croatian Booze Cruise.

The Final Four game is against UConn, the greatest women’s basketball school, who infamously did not give Clark an offer out of high school, preferring Paige Bueckers, another star in her own right.

Philadelphia 76ers head coach Nick Nurse was at the Elite Eight game, and he tells i: “I’m currently trying to process what I saw and where it ranks in the top sporting events I’ve ever seen live because it is up there. It’s like watching a Michael Jordan, a Patrick Mahomes, Tiger Woods. In pure basketball terms, she reminds me of Steve Nash.”

Bohnenkamp can already see the Clark effect taking place: “I cover some high school basketball too, girls who’re 14 and 15, and I can see some of Caitlin’s game in them, they mimic her style.

“You can already see the influence she’s having. Everyone has seen her do it, now let’s see if I can do it.”

A story goes round about a sports psychologist coming to visit the team last season. She asked the players when they felt stressed and anxious on court. Clark said: “I never am”. Everyone realised this wasn’t arrogance – she was just telling the truth.

At 22, Clark should easily play for another decade, if not 15 years. She has declared her eligibility for the WNBA draft on 15 April, and is expected to be picked up by the Indiana Fever with the first pick. Their season tickets are already flying off the shelves in anticipation. This thing has only just started.