Start with the shoes.

Before Michael Jordan even played an official NBA game, his sneakers were a topic of conversation and controversy. Jordan wore a pair of mostly black Nikes with a red swoosh to his first preseason games. The Chicago Bulls, concerned about the shine of the shoes, were concerned that he would do it again. The NBA also objected, threatening a $1,000 fine if he wore them a second time and $5,000 for each subsequent time.

Exactly four decades later, Caitlin Clark's sneakers also made headlines ahead of her first official game. Last spring, Clark signed a historic eight-figure endorsement deal with Nike that is expected to lead to her own signature shoe. There was no threat of fines this time, but there was a lot of talk about what it meant for a rookie who had not yet proven herself in the professional sport to sign such a lucrative and high-profile contract.

Clark has been compared to other basketball greats. Her shooting ability is reminiscent of Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu. Her game reading and precise passing remind fans of Sue Bird. Along with fellow rookie Angel Reese, the two players were immediately compared to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, whose collegiate and professional duels bridged the two levels and helped advance the NBA in the 1980s.

Clark, of course, has a long way to go before she can boast a resume that matches Jordan's six NBA championships and six Finals MVP titles, five NBA MVP awards and 10 scoring titles. She is just entering her first playoffs as a rookie and leading the WNBA in scoring, but her impact on the WNBA is already comparable to His Airness's impact on the NBA. Aside from being reminiscent of Jordan's classic shoulder shrug after big plays, Clark's impact is reminiscent of Jordan's in other important ways: mass commercial appeal, national celebrity and the ability to catapult a sport to new heights.

Michael Jordan and Steph Curry. Now Caitlin Clark. 🤷 pic.twitter.com/zKf0jNY3Ma

— DG (@DGHoopsz) 1 April 2023

“It's the result of a combination of many factors over time,” said Bill Laimbeer, who played against Jordan during his 13-year NBA career and later coached in the WNBA for more than a decade. “(The NBA and WNBA) mirror each other in some ways, from the influx of talent, the rule changes to speed up the game, the exposure from television and the competitive nature.”

Clark and Jordan became stars in college, leading their home universities to NCAA tournament victories. More than 17 million people tuned in to CBS for the 1982 national championships and saw freshman Jordan make the game-winning jump shot with 17 seconds left to give UNC the national title. At the time, it was the second most-watched title game broadcast.

Clark, meanwhile, also drove huge ratings in women's college basketball with her 3-pointers and game-winning plays for Iowa. She headlined the most-watched women's NCAA Tournament game, with Iowa's 2024 national championship appearance against South Carolina averaging 18.9 million viewers.

But the professional leagues in which Jordan and Clark played could not boast the same level of audience loyalty that they had enjoyed in college.

The rise of Jordan and Clark was not without a solid foundation. There were professional stars before them: Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Bird, Johnson. In the WNBA there were Rebecca Lobo, Cheryl Miller, Lisa Leslie, Tamika Catchings, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, A'ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart. There were developments in the actual game of both leagues that produced a more exciting product, and changes in the media landscape.

By 1981, ratings slumps led to the NBA Finals being mostly delayed, and Celtics and Lakers games were the most televised games. Viewers eventually began to warm to the league and a new wave of athletes, but it was Jordan who came along and electrified the league with his show as the Bulls reached peak ratings in the 1990s.

“Because Michael was in the league, we went from having one or two games a week on TV in the '80s to having a game almost every night,” former Cavaliers guard Craig Ehlo told Bleacher Report. “I think the NBA's marketing prowess was an advantage to the other teams when Michael was in the league. If he never plays, I don't think they have the power to get the TV deals they got.”

Clark has also ignited an unprecedented fan base in the WNBA. The league has grown in prominence over the years, but with Clark this year, six different league television partners set viewership records by airing Fever games, and the WNBA had its most successful viewership year across all ESPN platforms.

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Clark and Jordan have also taken mediocre franchises to higher levels. The Bulls had made the playoffs just twice in nine years before Jordan's arrival. In the three seasons immediately before he arrived in town, they were in the bottom half of the NBA in total attendance before he led the Bulls to their dynasty.

Clark has Indiana back in the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and hopes to help the Fever avoid elimination against the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday. With legions of their fans behind them, the Fever led the WNBA in home game attendance after being in the bottom half of the league for the past eight seasons.

Caitlin Clark's WNBA playoff debut averaged 1.84 million viewers on Sunday – the league's most-watched playoff game since the 2000 Finals.https://t.co/IW0iXqpJQz pic.twitter.com/w07FP07B96

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) 24 September 2024

“Clark immediately made a Jordan-like impression,” said Jack McCallum, a Naismith Hall of Fame inductee and former Sports Illustrated reporter who covered the NBA for more than three decades. “The NBA had Bird and Magic, and then the biggest star in sports history came along and threw his weight around. (Jordan) seemed to pull everyone along with him. A rising tide lifts all boats. I think that's what's going to happen to the WNBA.”

The most critical factor in this context is probably salaries.

Jordan skipped his final season in North Carolina and signed a seven-year contract with the Bulls worth $6.3 million. His base salary as a rookie was relatively modest at $455,000, slightly above the league average salary, but not by much. Clark also opted against returning to Iowa for a final season and signed for the modest rookie salary of $76,535. Like Jordan, it's undervalued (the average WNBA salary this season is about $110,000, according to HerHoopStats) considering what she means to the league.

Still, Jordan and Clark have proven their true earning potential in the market in their first seasons with groundbreaking endorsement deals. Both are partners with Nike and Gatorade—Jordan was the sports drink brand's first athlete sponsor in 1984. Perhaps a “Like Clark” ad would be a fitting repeat of Jordan's famous campaign.

Wilson has curated one-off basketballs and other smaller product releases for NBA and WNBA players over the years, but only Jordan and Clark have worked with the brand to build multi-year collections, a company spokesperson said.

Clark will likely contribute to a raise in the WNBA, similar to what Jordan did in the NBA. In 1995, after Jordan's first consecutive three-peat victory, the NBA's salary cap went from just under $16 million to $23 million – a 44 percent increase that represents the largest year-over-year increase in league history, according to Spotrac. Although WNBA players have yet to experience such a rise, the league this season finalized a landmark television rights deal worth more than $2 billion over 11 years. Its ratings paradigm has shifted as Clark played in a record-breaking six games on various networks this season, and the trickle-down effect will likely lead to higher salaries when the next CBA goes into effect, perhaps as soon as the 2026 season.

Clark is still at the beginning of her career. She is six championships and 31,523 points behind Jordan. But another phenomenon is clearly visible.

“What Caitlin Clark has done for the game is generational,” women's basketball pioneer Nancy Lieberman said recently on a Fever show. “As a basketball player among basketball players, I want to thank you, Caitlin Clark, for taking our game to a new level. You and so many great players for what you do. You will make all of these women multimillionaires one day. Like Tiger. Like Michael Jordan.”

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The athlete; Photos of Caitlin Clark and Michael Jordan: Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images,
(Jeff Dean / Getty Images)