“Big3 made a historic offer to Caitlin Clark. Why wouldn’t we? Caitlin is a generational athlete who can achieve tremendous success in the Big3,” Ice Cube wrote on X (formerly Twitter) last week.

Clark’s record comes at a time when sports commentators and basketball fans question the value of the WNBA as it battles to stay afloat financially.

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The WNBA is facing backlash from its players for the alleged pay discrepancy compared to their male counterparts in the NBA. Women’s MVP Kelsey Plum has called for the league to pay women players the same percentage of revenue shared as players in the NBA – yet the league operates at an annual loss of roughly US$10 million to US$12 million (per Sports Keeda).

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Who is Caitlin Clark?

Clark plays for Iowa Hawkeyes and is currently the NCAA Division 1’s all-time leading scorer.

The college star is a lifelong athlete, previously dabbling in softball, tennis, golf and football, among other sports, before setting her sights on basketball. She began playing basketball at five years old, shooting hoops alongside boys in various children’s leagues because she couldn’t find any girls’ leagues in that age group, per Sportskeeda.

She later joined a girls’ league and caught the attention of colleges from as early as seventh and eighth grade, per Sports Illustrated. She contemplated offers from Notre Dame and Iowa State before signing on to play for Iowa Hawkeyes, per The Gazette.

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Throughout her college career, she’s won a list of awards, including the Associated Press women’s basketball player of the year and the Naismith college player of the year, and has been thrice nominated as a Honda Award finalist.

Most recently, she smashed Stephen Curry’s college record of 162 three-pointers in a season, netting her 163rd three-pointer on March 9. Clark set the record for most three-pointers in a season by a player of any gender in Division 1. She’s also the first Division 1 women’s player to score more than 1,000 points in two different seasons, per CBS Sports.

Her achievements mean fans will be seeing her on the pro courts soon. She’s confirmed that she will join the 2024 WNBA draft. However, reports suggest that her contract will pay her less than US$80,000 in her rookie year. That comes as a shocking surprise to fans since her name, image and likeness valuation alone is at around US$3 million.

All reasons that rapper Ice Cube publicly announced last Wednesday that he’s looking to sign the player to the three-on-three Big3 league with a whopping US$5 million contract.

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Between her league earnings, the potential contracts on the table and her existing deals with brands such as Nike, Gatorade, State Farm and Goldman Sachs, Clark could well be setting earning records, as well as scoring ones, in the years ahead.