WWE Superstar Seth Rollins paid a huge compliment to WNBA star and fellow Iowan Caitlin Clark during an appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter on Tuesday night.
While hyping up Saturday’s SummerSlam premium live event in Cleveland, Rollins also gave his takes on some sports topics, including the impact Clark is having on the sport of women’s basketball (beginning at the 6:22 mark):
“It’s unbelievable what she’s done for the sport of basketball for women. It’s incredible. I’m a Bulls fan as well, so I don’t want to get blasphemous here, but it’s Jordan-esque. She’s changed the game, and I’m not saying anybody’s as good as Michael Jordan, but from an optics perspective, the amount of eyes she’s put on the sport has been incredible.
“It’s not just her, absolutely not, it’s a class of women, girls that paved the way for years and years and years, but she’s the focal point right now. It’s amazing to see and very proud. Like I said earlier, Iowa, there’s not a lot of us, but we stick together, man.”
Clark, 22, has already reached levels of stardom that perhaps no women’s basketball player has before, and that is despite the fact that her professional career is just getting started.
She undoubtedly put more eyes on women’s college basketball during her time at the University of Iowa, winning two Naismith College Player of the Year awards and leading the Hawkeyes to the National Championship Game twice.
Her rivalry with LSU’s Angel Reese captivated fans, and it has carried over to the WNBA, as the Indiana Fever selected Clark first overall in the 2024 WNBA draft, while the Chicago Sky took Reese with the No. 7 overall pick.
Clark has been every bit as good as advertised during her rookie campaign, averaging 17.1 points, 8.2 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game, and earning All-Star honors.
While it is difficult to argue against Jordan’s status as the greatest basketball player of all time, it can be argued that Clark came out of college with even more hype, as Jordan only went third overall in the 1984 NBA draft behind Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie.
MJ instantly cemented himself as a superstar during his rookie season, though, and it wasn’t long before he became a cultural icon, winning six NBA championships and six NBA Finals MVP awards, and launching one of the most popular and successful shoe and apparel brands of all time.
It remains to be seen if Clark will be able to reach those heights, but given the positive impact she has had on television viewership and attendance, she is well on her way to at least becoming the WNBA’s version of Jordan.