Raptors star Scottie Barnes reacts after buying two Caitlin Clark Indiana Fever jerseys

Modified Oct 10, 2024 12:44 GMT

Toronto Raptors star Scottie Barnes shared on Instagram his purchase of two Caitlin Clark jerseys in different colorways. He purchased the red rebel edition and navy explorer edition jerseys of the Indiana Fever rookie.

The former NBA Rookie of the Year shared his latest purchase on his lifestyle account on Wednesday.

"Bought my first jerseys 🔥🔥🔥🔥" Barnes captioned his Instagram story.

The WNBA's 2024 season has seen record-breaking jersey sales with Caitlin Clark leading as the top seller. The WNBA Rookie of the Year ended her rookie campaign as one of the best in league history.

Clark concluded her rookie regular season averaging 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, a WNBA record-high 8.4 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 41.7%, including 34.4% from deep. The first overall pick of the 2024 WNBA draft also secured many historic accolades as she led the Indiana Fever to their first playoff appearance since 2016.

Caitlin Clark's rookie campaign concluded as the Indiana Fever were eliminated in their first-round playoff series against the Connecticut Sun. According to ESPN PR, a record 2.5 million viewers tuned in to watch Fever's elimination game, marking the largest cable audience in WNBA history.

WNBA legend Sue Bird discusses Caitlin Clark and WNBA viewership drop

The WNBA saw a meteoric rise in popularity in the 2024 season, with Caitlin Clark playing a major role in its rise. Since Clark's elimination, the WNBA viewership has declined, with the first three games of the semifinals failing to reach one million viewers.

Featuring on Wednesday's episode of "A Touch More" podcast, WNBA legend Sue Bird spoke on the decrease in viewership being attached to a negative notion. She emphasized that while viewership on Clark's games was very high, other games also saw higher viewership compared to previous years.

"Viewership numbers with Caitlin Clark are astronomical," Bird said. "But the WNBA playoff semi-final games are still breaking records from previous WNBA years, are still cracking a million viewers."

“These [WNBA viewership] numbers are still really high, and they still show and tell a story of the viewership that is being gained in the WNBA,” she added.

Bird also expressed frustration over what she sees as unfair scrutiny of women's sports by drawing a comparison to the NBA.

“The reason why it really gets my blood boiling? This last year, the Celtics and the Mavs were in the Finals. That viewership was amazing. Lower than the previous years, lower than when LeBron's in it, lower than when Steph Curry's in it, and yet, we don't hear anyone speaking on the Celtics and the Mavs.”

According to Forbes, the WNBA averaged 657,000 viewers per game in the 2024 regular season, the highest in league history. Caitlin Clark's games averaged 1.18 million viewers compared to 394,000 for all other games.