Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark finished fourth in the WNBA MVP balloting for the 2024 season.
Six of the 67 voters had Clark third and another 26 listed her as fourth. Her 130 points put her behind the Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson, Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier and New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart.
The 6’0″ guard hit a number of impressive benchmarks, most notably setting assists records in a single game (19) and across an entire season (337).
Clark’s improvement and the Fever’s rise in the second half of the season after the Olympic break undoubtedly catapulted her up in the MVP race and made her the presumptive Rookie of the Year.
Indiana punched its ticket to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and Clark emerged as its offensive engine. In her final 14 games, she averaged 23.1 points and 8.9 assists while shooting 43.5 percent from the floor and 37.0 percent from beyond the arc.
For the season, Clark put up 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds per contest. In addition to her assist record, her 769 points were the most ever for a rookie. She also had the first triple-double by a rookie when she dropped 19 points, 12 boards and 13 dimes in an 83-78 victory over the Liberty on July 6.
The Fever start their best-of-three playoff series with the Connecticut Sun on Sunday, and upsetting the third seed is certainly on the table with how well they’re playing.
When it comes to Clark, the 22-year-old has already cemented her status as a foundational cornerstone for the franchise.