Is Caitlin Clark leaving the WNBA for Europe?

In her first year in the WNBA, Caitlin Clark has proven herself to be a sports superstar, uninhibited by basketball’s inequalities when it comes to gender. The 22-year-old Point Guard was selected first overall by the Indiana Fever team in this year’s WNBA draft, ending her first season with the WNBA Rookie of the Year award, First Team, and All-Star status under her belt.

With the WNBA salary controversies continuing to rage on — fellow All-Star Angel Reese recently admitting she struggles to pay rent (inexcusable when compared to the multi-millionaire men’s players who don’t come close to Reese’s or Clark’s ranks) — rumors of female players ditching the American leagues for their international counterparts are spreading like wildfire.

The rumor was strengthened significantly after sports journalist Jason Whitlock suggested that Clark would fare better in creating a non-WNBA league to rival the women’s sports giant. One particular observation, that “half the WNBA right now is overseas, playing in some foreign league because they don’t make enough money during the WNBA season,” added fuel to the fire that Clark could soon challenge the American league’s pitiful pay by offering some of her star power to other countries.

Is Caitlin Clark packing up her Nikes and on her way to the European leagues?

According to sports fact-checker Essentially Sports, no credible sources close to Clark or the WNBA have stated that the star is either planning to leave the WNBA or move to a European league. If the sources were perhaps more credible, they would likely give a timeframe or an idea of which country, and which team, Clark would be interested in emigrating to and joining.

If Caitlin Clark does indeed have plans to move cross-continent, she seems to be keeping it under wraps on her public social media pages. In a post marking the end of her rookie season, the Iowa native wrote “Year one, thank you to the many people who have supported me as I’ve been able to live my childhood dream.” The post seemed to be one that is more grateful of the WNBA, than one that gives the impression of being forced out.

Caitlin ended her post with “See you all in year two.” This seems to confirm that Caitlin will be there for the next season — unless she counts year two in another country (which seems highly unlikely). That is not to say the young player will never play overseas, but for now, nothing has been officially announce about her future role in the WNBA.

Sports fans will have to wait and see how Caitlin’s tenure in the league plays out, but until then, we’re alley-oop’ing at the prospect of what will be a bright basketball career, regardless of where she lands.