The Big Lead

Basketball Hall of Famer calls Caitlin Clark's critics 'big dummies'

By J.P. Hoornstra

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) waves to her former teammates Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in a round one game at the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) waves to her former teammates Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in a round one game at the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. / Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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In a sense, Caitlyn Clark finished what Cheryl Miller started.

As Miller's biography on her Basketball Hall of Fame page states, "as a collegiate forward at Southern California (USC) from 1982-86, Miller helped bring women's basketball to the forefront of American sports." Miller was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1995 at the young age of 31.

In eight years, the 23-year-old Clark is likely to be making good money as a professional basketball player. The WNBA announced an 11-year media rights megadeal last summer. Players, including Clark, subsequently opted out of their Collective Bargaining Agreement with the league.

As a rookie with the Indiana Fever, Clark made $11.1 million last year, according to Sportico, with 99 perecnt of the total earned off the court. The hope is that Clark's celebrity — which turned the NCAA women's Division I championship game into a bigger television event than the men's — is a boon to every player's minimum salary in the next CBA.

For any players still willing to criticize Clark as overhyped, Miller has a message: shut up.

Miller joined the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on Thursday and used the appearance to unload on Clark's critics.

“Is she getting hyped? Yes. But she was in the backyard," Miller said, wearing a USC sweater. "She was putting in the same time, sometimes maybe more than you were. I can’t fault her for what she was given. … You big dummies. You [are] getting paid now, right? Everybody now has an opportunity to pull up their chair and have a seat [at the table]."

The 2025 WNBA season tips off in May. It will feature the league's first expansion team since 2008, a record-long 44-game regular season and Clark's Fever playing Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on opening weekend.

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