Do they mean grow the sport of women's basketball in the USA or grow the WNBA? I ask because USA women's basketball viewership at the Olympics has been fine on its own for years prior to Caitlin Clark, and I suspect the same will be true this year without her on the team.

The 2021 women's basketball Olympic gold medal game averaged 7.8 million viewers in the United States, which was the highest-viewed women's basketball game in at least five years despite that Olympics as a whole having lower viewership than normal due to the circumstances. That game outdrew pretty much any WNBA game, so I have a hard time understanding what people mean when they say "grow the game" because people were already watching the women's team, even in a year impacted by the pandemic. In 2012, the gold medal game averaged 10.2 million US viewers, and the Olympics worldwide tend to average at least 3 billion viewers.

If people are talking specifically about growing the WNBA, I get it, but "growing the game?" As in the sport of women's basketball in general? I think that's a bit of a stretch. The national team has been a success for nearly three decades and people have tuned in to watch them capture gold medals. They'll probably capture another one even without Clark on the team.

Would the viewership be high with Clark on the team? 100%. Is it a death knell for USA women's basketball that she's not on the team? Probably not nearly as much as some people would like to act as though it is. This is just my opinion. I think it would help to say "growing the WNBA" rather than "growing the game." The game is doing just fine.