Sue Bird sent Caitlin Clark a poignant message following the Iowa loss.

Sue Bird offered her flowers to Caitlin Clark.

Caitlin Clark, the premier player for Iowa women’s basketball, and her Hawkeyes watched their historic 2023–24 season come to an unsatisfactory close on Sunday afternoon as they lost to South Carolina, who concluded their own season unbeaten under legendary head coach Dawn Staley. This season, Clark broke a number of records with Iowa, including becoming the all-time leading scorer in both men’s and women’s basketball in the NCAA. She also assisted her team in avenging their loss to LSU women’s basketball in the championship game a year prior by defeating the Tigers in the Elite Eight last week.

Even so, Clark’s season came to an unsatisfactory end. On Sunday, she scored an incredible 18 points in the first quarter alone, which helped her team take an early 10-0 lead over the Gamecocks. However, she only managed to score 12 points in the final three quarters, as Iowa’s inability to fill the size of its players proved to be a major issue throughout the afternoon, as they gave up offensive rebound after offensive rebound to South Carolina.

Many people showered Clark with praise after the game, including WNBA star Sue Bird, who congratulated Clark on an amazing collegiate career on her account on X, the social networking platform that was once known as Twitter.

“What a career @CaitlinClark22 and what a season @IowaWBB.” Whether it was ring or not, we surely witnessed one of the greatest collegiate careers ever. We appreciate your play, poise, and of course your logo 3’s for helping to enhance our sport! I’m excited to see you reach new heights! Bird wrote in her post.

Bird also took a moment to thank South Carolina women’s basketball and Dawn Staley on their success on X.

“Massive congrats to @GamecockWBB @dawnstaley @ the whole show! “The season with a ring that remains unbeaten is legendary,” wrote Bird, concluding with an emoji of a flower.

An extraordinary ability

Caitlin Clark is arguably the player who has raised the profile of women’s basketball the most in such a short period of time in history. Similar to how Stephen Curry changed the NBA game with his trademark three-pointers and obvious joy in the game, Clark had a similar impact on women’s basketball, attracting record-breaking television viewership, driving up ticket sales, and drawing greater national attention than ever before.

Naturally, not everyone was happy about this. Diana Taurasi, a fellow women’s basketball legend, recently faced criticism after making some harsh and/or sour remarks about Clark’s WNBA prospects on ESPN. Taurasi then stated that if she were given the first overall pick in the draft, she would choose Paige Bueckers of UConn over Clark.

It makes sense, in some ways, that WNBA icons like Bird and Taurasi would feel a little jealous after dedicating years of their lives to the sport, only to have a 22-year-old college student enter the scene and dramatically increase the sport’s media attention in a short amount of time. Anyway, despite Taurasi’s assertions to the contrary, most people believe that Clark will be selected first overall in the WNBA draft.