It’s a slower Wednesday here at Barstool HQ. There’s nothing on television unless you care about playoff baseball, nothing is going on except all Bank of America accounts showing $0, and checking Twitter there’s a new season of some show called The Circle that’s trending. And I know everyone here loves the WNBA and clicking into anything women’s basketball related, so let’s take a trip down the TV ratings lane on how the playoffs have been since Caitlin Clark and the Fever were eliminated.
I consider myself a “ball knower” as people would say, and there was zero shock to me that the ratings have been in extreme decline. We’ve got a WNBA Finals matchup rematch in the semifinals right now between the two time defending champion Aces and the Liberty, and surprise: no one is watching. I love to see a good “This post has been deleted” after what is objectively a horrible take on the ole bird app. Poetic justice like you read about.
Have we ever seen a sport where one player means that much to its viewership? I don’t think it’s crazy to say we haven’t? The only answer here might be that we need to bring back rigging in the sports. Bring prime Tim Donaghy out there to ref Fever games, make the other team play 4v5, who knows. My favorite part of WNBA Twitter these days is people comparing horrible plays to what Caitlin Clark would have done:
Nike may want to congratulate her on that ROTY though:
At least we’ll get to see a championship brought to New York.
P.S. I love this thumbnail so here’s a Caitlin Clark compilation to keep you busy for the next 8 minutes: