Caitlin Clark Voted Most Likely Face of WNBA in 5 Years By Players over JuJu Watkins

Having established herself as the most popular WNBA player as soon as she was drafted into the league in 2024, Caitlin Clark's peers overwhelmingly believe she will be the face of the league going forward.

In an anonymous player poll conducted by The Athletic's Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman, Clark received 53.8 percent of the vote from 39 respondents asked to name the face of the WNBA in five years.

Interestingly, the No. 2 player is not in the league yet. USC star JuJu Watkins received 17.9 percent of the vote, followed by Paige Bueckers (14.1 percent), Angel Reese (6.4 percent), A'ja Wilson (3.8 percent) rounded out the top five.

There's little doubt that Clark is already the face of the league. When the 2025 schedule was unveiled in March, it included 41 of the Fever's 44 games on national television.

Clark's return from a quad injury on June 14 against the New York Liberty led to one of the most-watched WNBA games on ABC in history.

This season has been a rough one for Clark thus far. She has missed nine games due to quad and groin injuries, which in turn caused a profound impact on her scoring ability. The 23-year-old is averaging 12.0 points on 29.5 percent shooting in six games since June 19.

Despite her injury woes, Clark received the most fan support for the All-Star Game with 1,293,526 votes. Napheesa Collier, arguably the MVP frontrunner, finished second with 1,176,020 votes.

Watkins checking in at No. 2 on the list speaks volumes about both the respect her game has earned from WNBA players and how high her ceiling can be. The 20-year-old isn't even draft-eligible until 2027.

It will be interesting to see what the 2025-26 season holds for Watkins. She tore her ACL in USC's victory over Mississippi State in the second round of the NCAA tournament on March 24.

There has been no indication thus far if Watkins will take a redshirt year or return at some point during the season. Her presence could swing the national title race because USC on track to potentially win a title prior to the injury.

Regardless, Watkins finishing second in this poll does indicate there's not a lot of concern among WNBA players that she will have issues returning to the court in peak form.

One other observation from the list is how little support Wilson and Collier received. They are arguably the top two players in the league right now and are only 28 years old.

Wilson already has three MVP awards and two WNBA titles on her resume. Collier led the Minnesota Lynx to within one win of their first championship last season and their 19-4 record so far this season is the best in the league.