Luke Combs is apparently a BIG Caitlin Clark fan, and who could blame him?
I admittedly, like a lot of people, never really tuned into women’s basketball before this year. I ain’t afraid to say it. I even went to DePaul University in Chicago (where Whiskey Riff got started) and their women’s team is generally pretty competitive, making the tournament 18 times since 2003. But I can’t say that I ever went to a game while I was there (but I did take a crappy bus to their suburban arena to watch the men get stomped by 20 points a game).
And to be honest, I don’t watch much basketball period, but the WNBA? I can’t say I can even name a single team.
However this season, I found myself watching Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes’ run to the NCAA Women’s National Championship game, where they fell to Kamilla Cardoso and Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks. Before that, I watched Clark get the better of a very good UConn team, and get revenge on Angel Reese and the LSU Tigers.
And I have to say, Caitlin Clark is absolutely ELECTRIC, just so much fun to watch. Raining threes from WAY beyond the arc, dealing dimes to her teammates… she put women’s basketball on the map this year, which led over 20 million people to tune into the natty. And she’ll look to continue that magic in the WNBA.
Clark was the 1st overall pick in tonight’s WNBA draft, going to the Indiana Fever and landing the Hoosier state another true basketball star. Prior to tonight, you want to know how many WNBA drafts I’ve ever watched in my life? Hard zero. But tonight, I tuned in and was even familiar with a number of the ladies getting drafted. Call it the Caitlin Clark effect.
But much like Caleb Williams going to the Chicago Bears in a week and a half, it wasn’t a surprise to anybody that Caitlin went #1. It was a given. It was a surprise to her that she was gonna get a message from country music superstar Luke Combs tonight.
So much so that I think she thought it was live (quite hilariously might I add):
“Hey Luke Combs here, I just wanna say congratulations on being the #1 pick in the WNBA draft. That’s incredible.
I know I can speak for everybody all across the United States that we’ve enjoyed watching you these past couple years and we can’t wait to continue to do so. So congratulations, you earned it. Can’t wait to see you out there.”
She was clearly excited to hear from her favorite artist of all time:
“Luke Combs, that’s my favorite artist of all time, that’s pretty cool. He’s a big women’s basketball fan so I appreciate that. That’s amazing, I was not expecting that.”
Real recognizes real.
