After Caitlin Clark carried the WNBA to its most high-profile and lucrative season ever, the league’s brightest young star may have just one game left to make her sensational off-court impact felt.

The Sun blew out the Fever 93-69 in front of an 8,910-person crowd in Connecticut on Sunday afternoon, as all four first-round WNBA playoff matchups got underway. Viewership is not yet available for the game that aired on ABC, but it tipped off at 3 p.m. ET, just as the NFL’s witching hour was kicking off. 

With the loss, Indiana faces a must-win Game 2 back at Mohegan Sun Arena on Wednesday night. If Clark and Co. win, they’ll host a winner-take-all Game 3 on Friday night in Indianapolis. If the Fever lose, their season is over.

Best Show in Town

By whichever metric you look at, Clark helped take the WNBA to new heights in 2024.

On the TV ratings front, games involving Clark drew an average audience of 1.18 million, while all other games averaged 394,000 viewers. That’s a 199% difference. 

At Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the Fever averaged a WNBA record of 17,035 fans per game. When combining road games, Indiana averaged a record 16,084 tickets sold per contest. The Fever’s season finale at Washington was the most-attended regular-season game in WNBA history with 20,711 fans. 

Adding to the Trophy Case

There was some confusion surrounding Clark on Sunday after the Associated Press named her the unanimous choice for WNBA Rookie of the Year. The WNBA has not yet revealed its official Rookie of the Year award winner, although Clark has been the favorite to take that honor, too. The league will announce its winner at a later date.

Clark did finish fourth in the WNBA’s official MVP voting that was announced Sunday. Aces center A’ja Wilson was the unanimous choice, winning her third league MVP award.

The Panthers won their first game of the 2024 NFL season Sunday, after the benching of 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Young led to a week-long discussion about dysfunction surrounding the franchise and owner David Tepper. 

Carolina upset the Raiders 36-22 in Las Vegas, led by newly appointed starting quarterback Andy Dalton, 36, who threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns. It also marked the first win for first-year head coach Dave Canales, who was hired in January after Tepper fired head coaches midseason the previous two years.

Forever Young?

After starting 0-2, the Panthers made the unprecedented decision to bench Young after just 18 starts in the NFL—and a 2-16 record. As the top pick in last year’s draft, Young signed a fully guaranteed four-year, $38 million contract. If he were to be released after this season, he would carry a dead cap hit of $22.4 million, according to Spotrac, and $12.3 million if he were traded. 

However, on Sunday morning, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Carolina is not interested in trading Young this fall, despite fielding multiple inquiries from other teams after his benching. 

Blame Game

Ahead of Week 3 action kicking off Sunday afternoon, multiple pregame NFL shows took shots at the leadership of Tepper.

“The owner of the Carolina Panthers, that’s the problem,” two-time Super Bowl champion coach Jimmy Johnson said on Fox NFL Sunday. “He’s making the major decisions without listening to his football people. … He’s got to listen to his football people and quit playing fantasy football.”

On ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown, Randy Moss echoed a similar sentiment. “The laughingstock of the National Football League is the Carolina Panthers,” the Hall of Fame receiver said. “And it’s not because of how they’re playing. It’s everything, from ownership all the way down.”

Following the victory in Las Vegas, Carolina now sits at 1-2, still in last place in the NFC South.

In the minds of incoming Nike president and CEO Elliott Hill, there is a pathway for the sports apparel and footwear giant to recover from its current malaise. But to quote a legendary marketing slogan from the company, can Nike “just do it”?

Hill will take over next month for the embattled and outgoing John Donahoe, marking Nike’s most drastic step to date in its corporate rebuilding process. Dogged for months by a sagging stock, falling sales, and staff cuts, the challenges are significant for Hill—something he acknowledged in an email sent to company employees.

“I know things haven’t been easy, and we certainly have taken our fair share of shots,” Hill wrote. 

But in that same note, Hill also said he will lean on a long-held practice to “always put the consumer at the center of everything, and every decision.” In the minds of many, that practice had increasingly escaped Nike in the Donahoe era as the company appeared to struggle more with product innovation—particularly in the face of rising competition from upstart brands such as On and Hoka. 

Hill started as an intern with Nike in 1988 and is now coming out of a four-year retirement to take the company reins. According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he will be paid a compensation package worth up to $27 million, depending on Hill’s ability to hit certain performance targets and earn incentive awards. The figure is slightly less than the $29.1 million in compensation Donahoe received during Nike’s fiscal 2024. 

Optimism on the Street

Investors have made their feelings on the executive switch very clear. After sending up shares more than 9% in Thursday after-hours trading immediately following the announcement of Hill’s return, that gain largely held as Nike shares closed Friday at $86.52 per share, up nearly 7%. 

Still, there’s no quick fix for Nike, and the stock remains down by 19% for the year, contrasting from a broader landscape in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average has soared to record highs. But analysts generally agreed Donahoe’s departure and Hill’s arrival could provide a new energy to the company.

“We believe this highly anticipated leadership change will inject a much-needed sense of urgency, focusing on product innovation, storytelling, marketing, and rebuilding wholesale partnerships—areas that suffered under previous leadership,” wrote Deutsche Bank’s Krisztina Katai in a research note.