Clark shuts down Project B rumors, prioritizing WNBA. She sees new leagues as a positive sign for women's basketball growth.
Caitlin Clark has heard the pitch, considered the moment, and delivered a definitive answer.
Despite growing buzz around Project B — a new women’s basketball league set to launch during the WNBA offseason — the Indiana Fever star made it clear she has no plans to take part, putting an end to speculation fueled in part by her own teammate.
The conversation gained traction after Fever guard Sophie Cunningham revealed on her Show Me Something podcast that she had personally tried to recruit Clark to play in Project B, citing the significant money being offered to players. Cunningham said Clark’s response was immediate and emphatic.
“I tried to get [Clark] to play in this [league], and she was like, ‘No!’” Cunningham said.
Given Clark’s status as the most visible figure in women’s basketball, her potential involvement would have instantly legitimized any new venture. That reality made Cunningham’s admission unsurprising — and Clark’s rejection even more telling.
Clark addressed the topic publicly after a Team USA Basketball training camp practice, where she was asked directly whether Project B had approached her and if she planned to play in the league. Her answer left little room for interpretation.
“I plan to play in the WNBA,” Clark said. “Obviously, that’s another thing that we need to get done so that we have a season coming up here.”
While Clark declined to align herself with Project B — or other offseason leagues such as Unrivaled — she did not dismiss the broader significance of their emergence. Instead, she framed the surge of new opportunities as a reflection of how dramatically perceptions around women’s basketball have shifted.
“I think more than anything, it showcases what people think of women’s basketball,” Clark said. “All these different opportunities, all these different leagues, the platform that they want to give women’s basketball, where they think women’s basketball is gonna continue to grow.”
Clark said the most meaningful part of the moment is not the individual offers being made, but the level of investment now being directed toward the sport — something she noted has not always been present despite decades of elite play.
“I think the thing that probably pops into my mind is just that people are really believing, and putting their money where their mouth is,” Clark said. “And that hasn’t always been the case for women’s basketball, no matter how great it has been over the course of the last 25, 30 years.”
For now, Clark’s priorities remain unchanged. Even as new leagues attempt to carve out space in the offseason calendar and lure star power with massive financial incentives, the face of the WNBA has chosen continuity over novelty.
Project B may still attract notable names when it launches, but Clark’s message was unmistakable: her future, at least for the foreseeable horizon, is firmly tied to the WNBA — and she is not looking elsewhere.