LeBron James Praises 'Transcendent' Caitlin Clark Amid WNBA Rookie of the Year Win
According to a Friday X post from The Athletic's basketball insider Shams Charania, Indiana Fever rookie sensation Caitlin Clark has won the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year award.
Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark has won the WNBA Rookie of the Year award and Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier has been awarded the Defensive Player of the Year, sources confirm.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 27, 2024
Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson received MVP and Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington won Most Improved Player. pic.twitter.com/AWAoCl2PWz
While this has not been officially announced by the WNBA, Charania being the most reputable insider in the business combined with the WNBPA leaking Clark winning the award earlier on Friday, there seems little debate that the award belongs to Clark.
This should not come as a surprise. Despite the fantastic rookie season that Chicago Sky standout Angel Reese produced, the unmatched value and improvement that Clark showed in her first season for the Fever — not to mention the many records she broke — made the former Iowa Hawkeye an obvious choice.
Given Clark's stature in the sport and her massive expectations leading into her first season of professional basketball, she surely faced a ton of pressure to produce right away. If there's one person who can relate to this type of hype, it's NBA legend LeBron James.
And James had some extremely kind words for the Fever rookie in a September 26 article from Esquire.
"I have a great deal of respect for Caitlin Clark, because I know exactly what it means to be drafted, be the face of a franchise, and also get the scrutiny from a lot of people that don’t believe you’re ready for the next jump, don’t believe you’re ready for the big leagues, and just don’t think that you belong. And I remember that when I came into the league at eighteen years old how many people doubted me and hoped and prayed that I’d fail," James said in the article.
"And so, me watching Caitlin and seeing what she’s doing, I’ve been in support of her since day one, because I remember myself going through that, and she has my support 100 percent. She’s a transcendent player. And obviously we all saw that at Iowa, and I knew that it would translate to the big leagues. And she’s an unbelievable talent. It’s great to watch."
That is extremely high praise from one basketball GOAT to someone who seems destined to demand that acronym in the future.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.