Caitlin Clark is headed to the NBA, at least for a couple of nights.<\/p>\n
NBC announced Tuesday that Clark \u2014 the Indiana Fever star with an enormous following within the game \u2014 is joining the network’s pregame coverage for its debut of \u201cSunday Night Basketball\u201d this weekend when the Los Angeles Lakers play the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
It’s set to be a two-night gig for Clark, who plans to return to NBC in another pregame role on March 29 when the Knicks visit the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s no more iconic figure in basketball in the women’s game right now, or the game in general,\u201d Sam Flood, executive producer for NBC Sports, told The Associated Press. \u201cSo, we said, \u2018let\u2019s have a bigger conversation.’\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s a logical fit: NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, and Clark announced that she entered a marketing relationship with Xfinity in March 2024. Clark has done some television work before, including a cameo on NBC’s \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d in April 2024.<\/p>\n
NBC is calling Clark \u201ca special contributor\u201d who will join the \u201cBasketball Night in America\u201d studio team of host Maria Taylor and analysts Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady \u2014 all Basketball Hall of Famers \u2014 for pregame commentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited to be part of the Basketball Night in America crew this season,\u201d Clark said in a statement released by NBC. \u201cCarmelo, Vince, and Tracy are legends of the game and Maria is a true professional. It will be really fun to join them a few times this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark’s resume is stellar: She is a two-time WNBA All-Star and was an All-WNBA first-team pick in 2024 on her way to winning rookie of the year after being the league’s No. 1 draft selection that season. At Iowa, Clark became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I history with 3,951 points and was the AP’s college player of the year twice \u2014 as well as the AP’s female athlete of the year in 2024.<\/p>\n
Flood said he’s convinced Clark can handle this new role.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s had cameras pointed at her for years, and she\u2019s certainly always put on a show with a basketball in her hand. And after a game ends, she’s always a great interview,” Flood said. “She\u2019s always so thoughtful in everything she says. And to have the ability to do that on this platform, with this team, it\u2019s going to be a lot of fun to listen to it. That’s the beauty of who she is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark has dabbled in sports broadcasting before, going viral once for attempting to do some play-by-play while watching the Philadelphia Phillies, not knowing Fever teammate Lexie Hull was secretly recording her.<\/p>\n
The Phillies gave Clark rave reviews and even invited her to come try it for real. And now, NBC is giving her that opportunity as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s going to be in a basketball arena, like she always is, and in her comfort zone \u2014 which is on the court talking about the sport she loves and the sport that she shines in,” Flood said. \u201cSo, what better place for her to debut than in Madison Square Garden with this a great team of talent around her? We’re confident she\u2019ll thrive, because a basketball court is her second home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark was limited to 13 games because of injury last season with the Fever, who made it to the WNBA semifinals and fell to the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces. She returned to the court in December, taking part in a camp with USA Basketball’s senior women’s national team.<\/p>\n
When she’ll play a real game again remains unclear: The WNBA and its players remain in a labor dispute that could threaten the 2026 season. Clark has made her thoughts clear, saying last month that these talks are \u201cthe biggest moment\u201d for the WNBA and that \u201cthere has to be compromise on both sides\u201d to strike the right deal.<\/p>\n
It’s unknown if she will address labor matters Sunday. But Flood dropped one tease about what might be coming during Clark’s debut appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re hoping to have Caitlin with a basketball in her hand,\u201d Flood said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark is headed to the NBA, at least for a couple of nights. NBC announced Tuesday that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[72622,56984,2097,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-564518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ap-entertainment","9":"tag-ap-sports","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115968462347502847","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}