WNBA draft 2024: Indiana Fever select Caitlin Clark with first pick

NEW YORK –

The Indiana Fever selected sharpshooter Caitlin Clark with the first pick of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Draft on Monday in Brooklyn.

The pick came as little surprise after 22-year-old Clark’s astonishing final year at Iowa, where she broke the all-time NCAA scoring record and sent ratings skyrocketing during the March Madness tournament.

A sold-out crowd at the Brooklyn Academy of Music cheered wildly as Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the selection.

More than 18 million tuned in to watch South Carolina thwart Iowa in the collegiate finale last week. Clark will be one of the biggest attractions in the upcoming WNBA season, and the ticket resale market has surged in anticipation of her arrival.

“We are witnessing a transformational moment in sports that we may not experience for generations,” Engelbert told reporters ahead of the draft on Monday night. “We are ready for this moment.”

Clark joins last season’s unanimous Rookie of the Year, Aliyah Boston, at an ailing Indiana Fever franchise that has not enjoyed a winning season since 2015.

The WNBA regular season kicks off on May 14.

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Sonali Paul and Tom Hogue)