The argument of South Carolina’s women basketball coach Dawn Staley prior to Sunday’s game that if Caitlin Clark led Iowa to the national championship it “would seal the deal” for considering her the GOAT of women’s basketball is ludicrous. Clark has had an astounding college career, arguably the best ever in women’s basketball. To be deemed the sport’s GOAT, however, she will also need to have an outstanding professional and international career.
Clark set a plethora of NCAA records during her four years at Iowa. She is the leading scorer in women’s or men’s college basketball with 3,951 points. Clark led the nation in scoring this season with 31.7 points per game and averaged 28.4 points during her 139 career games. She set the NCAA single-season record for 3-pointers and is the first Division I women’s player to score at least 1,000 points in two different seasons. Clark has the most 30-point games of any man or woman in Division I in the past 25 seasons. She also averaged 30 points per game in the NCAA tournament and scored more points and 3-point field goals during March Madness than any other woman or man. For her college career, Clark is also third in career assists with 1,144, more than any male player, and more than twice as many as Pete Maravich or Larry Bird. Clark won both the Naismith Player of the Year and the Associated Press Player of the Year her junior and senior years at Iowa.
Clark led Iowa to the NCAA title game the last two seasons, but her Hawkeyes fell 102-85 to LSU in 2023 and 87-75 to South Carolina on Sunday as Clark scored 30 points in each contest. In both cases, Iowa played powerful house squads. LSU was 34-2 and South Carolina was 37-0 entering these two championship games. Clark had excellent teammates, but Iowa was not as loaded with talent as were the squads many other contenders for the GOAT crown played with during their title runs. Clark does not need a championship ring to validate the argument that she is the best women’s collegiate player of all time.
Certainly, no woman has done nearly as much to make women’s basketball at any level a major part of the national conversation. Throughout the season, large television audiences followed Clark’s record-breaking exploits. Iowa’s 94-87 win over LSU in the Elite Eight drew 12.3 million viewers, making it one of the most watched games in any sport during the past twelve months except for NFL contests. Iowa’s 71-69 triumph over the University of Connecticut in the Final Four averaged 14.2 million viewers, exceeding the audience for every NBA Finals and World Series game in 2023. An average television audience of 18.7 million watched the Iowa-South Carolina final, a viewership surpassed since 2019 only by some World Cup matches, Olympic coverage, and NFL games.
Speaking for many, Dawn Staley thanked “Clark for lifting up our sport” and predicted that the likely number one draft choice would greatly increase interest in the WNBA. Moderating her earlier claim, Staley told her “You are one of the GOATs of our game.” Sporting News proclaimed, “Clark did not need to win a national championship to be in those GOAT conversations in women’s basketball.” Millions of casual basketball fans who previously could not name any contenders for the GOAT title are now fiercely debating who deserves it and likely will do so for a long time, further accentuating Clark’s status and impact on the game.
Despite her amazing achievements and accolades, calling Clark even a GOAT of women’s basketball is premature and an injustice to other women who excelled in both college and in professional leagues over many years. The principal contenders for the GOAT title are Carol Blazejowski, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, Sheryl Swoopes, Lauren Jackson, Lisa Leslie, Tamika Catchings, Breanna Stewart, Maya Moore, and Diana Taurasi. Most of these women led their college teams to at least one national championship, and all of them have compiled impressive records in the WNBA and international play.
Arguably, Diana Taurasi is the current GOAT of women’s basketball. While playing at the University of Connecticut from 2001 to 2004, Taurasi helped lead the Huskies to a 139–8 record and three NCAA titles and was twice named the college Player of the Year. She has excelled in international competition, two European leagues, and the WNBA where she is still playing. She has won gold medals at five Olympics and three world championships. While playing abroad for twelve seasons, Taurasi helped the Spartak Moscow Region win Four EuroLeague titles and received two of its Final Four MVP awards. She also helped Fenerbahçe win the Turkish Championship in 2011 and UMMC Ekaterinburg capture the EuroLeague title in 2016.
Taurasi has propelled the Phoenix Mercury to three WNBA titles, won an MVP award, was named the finals MVP twice, and has captured a league-record five scoring titles. Taurasi has scored 2,500 more points than any other WNBA player and has made 300 more three-point shots than anyone else. In 2006, she averaged a WNBA record 25.3 points per game. Taurasi has been selected for fourteen all-WNBA teams, the most in league history, and for ten WNBA all-star games, tied for second all-time. Taurasi was named the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year in 2006, 2010, 2012, and 2016.
In 2021, a panel of experts assembled by ESPN named Taurasi the greatest player in WNBA history. Speaking for many pundits and coaches, ESPN writer Katie Barnes argues that Taurasi’s longevity and offensive brilliance makes her women’s basketball’s all-time best. Given her talent and work ethic, if Caitlin Clark avoids a serious injury and continues to be so highly motivated, she may someday be the GOAT of women’s basketball, but she has a long way to go to deserve this title.
Gary Scott Smith is the author of “The Greatest of All-Time: Fifteen Fantastic Athletes” (2024)
