Who shut down Caitlin Clark's Rookie of the Year celebration? Christine Brennan book tells all

Contrary to popular opinion, the WNBA didn’t ignore Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark’s Rookie of the Year award in 2024. The league offered to honor and celebrate Clark in several ways, according to a league spokesman quoted in the book, but those offers were turned down.

After an injury-plagued 2025, Clark is back in the Fever lineup for her third WNBA regular season. The Fever open their campaign at 1 p.m. ET, May 9, with a highly anticipated home game against Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and the Dallas Wings.

How Caitlin Clark's WNBA Rookie of the Year celebration was shut down

Editor's note: The following passage is adapted from the paperback edition of the New York Times bestseller “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports” by Christine Brennan, releasing on May 5. Copyright 2026 by Christine Brennan. Adapted for excerpt with permission from Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, LLC.

For as long as Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers are playing basketball, there will be a strong connection between them. They grew up less than a four-hour drive apart, Paige in the Minneapolis suburbs, Caitlin in the Des Moines suburbs. They’re also almost exactly the same age, just three months apart: Bueckers born in October 2001, Clark in January 2002. Bueckers was the No. 1 high school recruit in the nation and went on to star at UConn; Clark was the No. 4 high school recruit in the country and went on to a historic career at Iowa.

Like Clark, Bueckers was named WNBA Rookie of the Year: Clark in 2024, Bueckers in 2025. Clark’s rookie year was better than Bueckers’: they actually were tied in points per game with 19.2, but Clark had far more assists (8.4 to 5.4) and rebounds (5.7 to 3.9). Clark’s Indiana Fever of course made the playoffs in her rookie year, while Bueckers’ Dallas Wings finished a dismal 10-34.

Often commentators will put Clark’s and Bueckers’ names in the same sentence when talking about their appeal in the league. But statistics tell us they are not even in the same solar system, especially when it comes to attendance.

The tiny arena in which the Dallas Wings play in the suburb of Arlington, Texas, lists capacity at 6,251, but Bueckers and her teammates managed to draw 6,251 fans only seven times in 20 games held there in 2025, according to ESPN’s WNBA game data. The Wings’ two other home games were moved to the 19,200-seat American Airlines Center – home of the NBA’s Mavericks – when Clark came to town.