The Indiana Fever selected University of Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark with the top overall pick of the WNBA draft Monday night, setting a pro stage for the game’s most transformative player.
There was absolutely no surprise when WNBA commissioner Catherine Engelbert told an ESPN audience and a packed house at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York that the remarkably popular Clark had been selected by Indianapolis.
Clark strolled into the hall rocking a two-piece Prada set, with a miniskirt and a jacket atop a midriff-baring sparkle tank.
“I always just believed in myself,” Clark told ESPN and fans. “My parents always instilled confidence in me from a young age, when I was a young girl.”
Stanford’s Cameron Brink went at No. 2 to the Los Angeles Sparks. She was overcome with emotion and warned fans in the hall: “I’m an ugly crier.”
She thanked her family and friends, including her godmother, Sonya Curry, the mother of Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry.
“It really takes a village. It’s not a one-person job,” Brink said. “I’m so blessed to have the people I have surrounding me.”
South Carolina’s 6-foot-7 post player Kamilla Cardoso went No. 3 to the Chicago Sky, Tennessee’s Rickea Jackson was the No. 4 pick by the Sparks, Ohio State’s Jacy Sheldon will join the Dallas Wings at No. 5, and Connecticut’s Aaliyah Edwards was selected at No. 6 by the Washington Mystics.Angel Reese of LSU, perhaps the second-best-known player in college basketball, was the draft’s No. 7 pick, by Chicago, where she’ll team up with longtime rival Cardoso.
“I came from Baltimore. I’m not supposed to be here,” an emotional Reese said, thanking her mother and her brother for the lifetime of support.
Utah’s Alissa Pili, who is Samoan and native Alaskan, was picked at No. 8 by the Minnesota Lynx.
“A lot of indigenous and Polynesian girls don’t get to see that role model, and I’m just so blessed that I can be in a position to be that for them,” she said.
French players went Nos. 9 and 10, with Carla Leite and Leila Lacan going to the Dallas Wings and the Connecticut Sun, respectively.
The hometown New York Liberty, at No. 11, selected Marquesha Davis, from Mississippi. The last pick of the first round, by the Atlanta Dream, was Australian Nyadiew Puoch.
While a dozen players had their first-round dreams come true, Monday night belonged to Clark. “I’m excited to get there. I’m excited to get to Indianapolis,” she said.
Even though there was no surprise with Clark’s pick, thousands of Fever fans gathered to cheer the selection.
“Caitlin is one of the most naturally gifted basketball players I have ever seen enter the WNBA from the college level,” Fever coach Christie Sides said.
