What raised many eyebrows was Clark's salary with the Fever. Despite her undeniable talent and skyrocketing popularity, she only earned around $76,000, excluding performance bonuses, in her rookie season. It only further highlighted the glaring disparity in pay between the NBA and the WNBA.

Caitlin Clark, who made $76,535 as a rookie, was responsible for 26.5% of WNBA revenue, according to Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus.