Caitlin Clark’s superstardom has taken on new heights — over and over again.

This past Friday every sports program in America led their show with Caitlin Clark coverage. She was no longer just a college basketball star, or even just the face of college basketball. This was even bigger than that.

It’s hard to wrap your head around Caitlin Clark. Want to know why? Because it’s difficult for Clark herself to process her own success.

There’s nobody to compare her to. Nobody is elevating a historically under-appreciated sport or breaking records on a regular basis. And of course, nobody is playing the sport at a higher level than Clark.

But what I find to be the most impressive is how we never get numb to her greatness. Seriously, let me break it down.

Nobody’s surprised when Clark pulls up from 35 feet and drains a three pointer. We’ve come to expect it despite how incredibly difficult it is, and how Clark makes it look routine and effortless. That’s not what I’m talking about.

Let’s take a broad look at the last 12 months of Clark’s career at Iowa. Starting with the shot. No, the shot before the shot — against Indiana.

With ESPN College Gameday in the house, the No. 2 ranked team in the country and a two-point deficit with 1.5 seconds on the clock, Clark delivered a buzzer-beating three pointer. It sent Iowa off with a thrilling victory, and sent women’s basketball into a high-flying trajectory.

The very next week Clark’s Hawkeyes demolished Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament championship in Minneapolis. All she did was record the first ever triple-double in tournament history, a 30–point, 17-assist masterpiece. That 105-72 victory marked back-to-back conference titles for Iowa. Clark, of course, was the MVP.

In the Elite Eight, Clark had the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA tournament history. Iowa went to the Final Four for the first time in 30 years.

All Clark’s Hawkeyes did the next week in Dallas was slay the giant of South Carolina, a team that had won 42 straight games. Clark scored or assisted on every fourth-quarter basket in a 41-point effort that could only be described as “mythical mastery.”

Attendance and television viewership broke records nearly each game of the tournament. Each amazing feat topping the last. Fans came to expect the amazing, and observed something even beyond it.

2023-24 has been more of the same. A sold-out season wherever this team plays. And despite losing two of their three best players, the team has a better record through 26 games than it did last year.

And of course Clark put on a show only she could. Breaking the all-time scoring record wasn’t good enough. She broke the program record in the same night — once again, exceeding your already-lofty expectations. Clark makes the extraordinary look routine.

She yet again will lead the nation in scoring and will probably break the record for scoring average in a season — by a full point per game. She also remarkably leads the nation in assists per game.

Despite taking nearly five shots more per game her efficiency has improved. The team’s more Clark-dependent, and she’s delivering at even greater levels than she did last season.

Clark is in high demand all the time, and she knows it. She exits every stage with a mob of anxious children screaming at the top of their lungs for her attention. Clark delivers every time.

That’s because Iowa’s homegrown star doesn’t see the downside to her stardom. She’s inspiring the next generation and has ascended beyond the confines of her own sport.

Patrick Mahomes is the best player in the NFL, but he isn’t transforming football. Stephen Curry fundamentally changed the game of basketball and laid his impact on the next generation of shooters, but he’s not a true contender for the greatest basketball player of all time.

Shohei Ohtani can play two completely different positions on the baseball diamond, but the national championship ratings trumped the World Series.

Clark does it all, and then does it better again and again. In my opinion she is the biggest star in sports.

I never watched more than half an episode of The Office, and I can probably quote just one line from Michael Scott. But I’ll turn to the iconic character played by Steve Carrell for some parting wisdom for an Iowa fanbase that has been so lucky this season.

“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days… before you’ve actually left them.”

Hawkeye fans certainly have that luxury.

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