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The WNBA is as popular as it has ever been, thanks in large part to young superstars like Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers entering the league. Clark’s presence forces teams to move to bigger arenas when she’s playing in their city, and Bueckers just garnered the most fan votes for a rookie ever for the WNBA All-Star Game, one she started in, deservedly.
The rise in popularity is something the NBA always hoped for when it launched the league in 1997. There is still a long way to go, especially as the players fight for a better share of revenue, but the rise has been meteoric in the last few years.
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Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts played a huge part in the launch of the WNBA, winning Brandweek’s Marketer of the Year in 1998 for it. It makes him proud to see how far the league has come over the last 28 years.
“I love everything that’s happening right now,” Welts said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. “…This isn’t something that just happened. And I’m so happy for the players, the executives, the coaches that over the last 28 years have built a foundation that has allowed a Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers to come in now and ignite the kind of interest and enthusiasm that’s around the WNBA.”
Bueckers is starring for the local Dallas Wings, averaging 18.1 PPG, 5.6 APG, and 3.9 RPG, breaking plenty of records along the way. She’s the heavy favorite to take home Rookie of the Year, giving the city of Dallas a pair of exciting rookies after the Mavericks were able to select Cooper Flagg first overall.
Meanwhile, Clark has taken over the WNBA as a member of the Indiana Fever. She’s been dealing with injuries this year, so she hasn’t been able to perform at the level she has wanted, but she was still an All-Star captain.
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