Caitlin Clark/Wembanyama comparisons are latest indication of new norm

If Spurs fans weren't aware, an odd conversation has been taking place lately in sports media. Caitlin Clark ended her rookie campaign for the Indiana Fever and made her playoff debut. All season, the Fever's viewership numbers have been through the roof, and game one of the playoffs against the Connecticut Sun was no exception.

"Sunday’s Fever-Sun first round WNBA playoff Game 1 averaged 1.84 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest WNBA playoff audience in any round since the deciding Game 2 of the 2000 WNBA Finals," writes Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.

The WNBA in general has seen a large uptick in viewership this season. There's been a perfect storm of naturally growing intrigue and the introduction of such a dynamic player. Clark deserves all the adulation she's received. The fascinating part that relates to San Antonio is that she is the latest star to be compared to Victor Wembanyama.

Wembanyama is becoming the new standard

Wemby gets compared to Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, etc. It seems like the list is ever-growing, but that's the cost of business when you draft a generational talent. The other side of the fence is when others start getting compared to your guy. That's not completely unexpected, but how quickly it's happening is notable.

When the 2024 draft was approaching, much of the talk surrounding top prospects like Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr was about whether they could have impacts similar to Vic. Cooper Flagg is the next prospect coming in with a massive hype machine behind him, and he's had similar questions asked about him.

Wembanyama is only going into his second season. He won Rookie of the Year, but his inaugural campaign was littered with struggles and inconsistencies. There is a lot for him to clean up and improve on—he isn't even close to his prime. But that isn't stopping the media from looking at him as a barometer for his peers, and even those not classified as such, like Caitlin Clark.

Clark's numbers have been a long time coming for the WNBA, which has been putting an entertaining and competitive product on the floor for years. They can be held up on their own without comparing them to the men, but they should be. Rub it in the faces of all the people who make ridiculous comments about women's sports and how much people are invested in it.

The constant rhetoric about Clark's alleged mistreatment or how they should be thankful to Clark will be the same ones who latch onto a report like this only to denigrate the women's game because of the differences between the men's game.

However, you can't make decisions based on how radical fans on the fringes will feel. The love, praise and attention these players have received are special, and we should celebrate it.