The conversation around women’s basketball has taken a dramatic turn, with growing fan engagement and rising stars like Caitlin Clark and JuJu Watkins leading the charge.
As the WNBA reaches new heights in popularity, sports analyst Jason Whitlock has made a bold claim that has sent shockwaves through the basketball world: the WNBA will surpass the NBA within the next five years.
Whitlock, never one to hold back on controversial takes, made his stance clear after Watkins’ standout 38-point performance for USC.
He declared, “The NBA is done; it is on borrowed time. The clock is ticking. As I’ve been saying for the past year, the women’s game is going to surpass the men’s game.
“The WNBA is going to be more popular than the NBA. It will happen in our lifetime; in my view, it will happen in the next three to five years.”
Taking his argument a step further, Whitlock pointed to a potential Caitlin Clark vs. JuJu Watkins rivalry as a game-changer.
“The women’s game is going to catch up to them because when JuJu Watkins gets to the WNBA and becomes a real rival to Caitlin Clark, it’s done for the NBA,” Whitlock said.
While his claims may seem exaggerated, the WNBA’s growth is impossible to ignore.
The WNBA’s surge in popularity
Clark’s arrival in the WNBA has been a catalyst for unprecedented fan engagement.
Attendance jumped nearly 50% in 2024 compared to the previous season, with Clark’s Indiana Fever leading the charge, boasting a stunning 319% increase in home game attendance, averaging over 17,000 fans per game.
Television ratings and advertising revenue have also skyrocketed. Since 2022, Disney has reported a remarkable 641% rise in WNBA ad revenue, signaling a major shift in the sport’s commercial appeal.
With expansion teams set to launch in Golden State, Toronto, and Portland, the league’s future is brighter than ever.
NBA legend Charles Barkley has acknowledged the shift, stating, “Caitlin is a supernova and JuJu probably’s a better player. So those two women going to be running the WNBA for the next 10, 12, 14, 15, 20 years, basically.”
While the NBA still boasts an estimated 103 million fans in the U.S., the WNBA’s rapid ascent is undeniable. Whitlock’s timeline may be ambitious, but with Clark and Watkins leading the charge, the women’s game is entering a new era of dominance.
If this momentum continues, the idea of the WNBA challenging the NBA’s supremacy may no longer be just a bold prediction-it could become reality.
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