Caitlin Clark signed an eight-year endorsement deal with Nike worth $28 million in April, back when she was still in college, and YouTuber Mick Talks Hoops suggested that the Indiana Fever sensation might have missed out on an even better deal.
Mick criticized Clark’s agent, Erin Kane of Excel Sports, for what he deems is a poor negotiation of the former Iowa Hawkeyes star’s shoe deal. Since Clark signed the deal before she went to the WNBA, the YouTuber argued that her agent played it safe and failed to anticipate the enormous influence she would have in the league.
“I think the biggest issue with this whole thing is that if this contract happened today, she [would be] making [a] minimum $10 million a year,” Mick said. “It was an awful bet-on-yourself contract.”
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Mick also opined that Kane should have positioned Caitlin Clark as the next face of basketball after LeBron James hangs his jersey.
“Once LeBron leaves she is your biggest star when he retires next year too,” Mick added. “We know that she’s probably worth at least $15 million a year. We will push this on to eight years if you renegotiate it at $11 million a year.”
In Mick’s proposed $11-million-per-year deal over eight years, Clark would have earned $60 million more than her current deal. The YouTuber also said that if a superagent like Rich Paul of Klutch Sports represented Clark, then she would have a significantly larger deal with Nike.
“If she had a super agent in Rich Paul, if she was with Klutch—I would be shocked if JuJu Watkins in college is making less than Caitlin Clark is per year; I’d be shocked if A’ja Wilson is making less than Caitlin Clark is per year. And I mean that.”
A YouTuber with over 40,000 subscribers, Mick Talks Hoops’ channel focuses on women’s basketball.
Caitlin Clark’s WNBA salary in her first 4 years is less than $1 million
For a player of her standing, Caitlin Clark’s WNBA is far from lucrative. Per Spotrac, she only earned a base pay of $76,535 this year as part of her four-year $338,056 contract.
This offseason, Clark was invited to join the Unrivaled league, which would have provided her six-figure salaries and equity, but she declined the opportunity. Instead, she chose to widen her horizons and participated in speaking engagements and other sports like golf. Per AthleteSpeakers.com, booking Clark as a resource speaker costs a minimum of $100,000. That may very well be a reasonable price as she recently became the first women’s basketball player to be named TIME’s Athlete of the Year.
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