Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark had to help rebuild the basketball teams that selected them at No. 1 overall.
Banchero has already won the NBA’s 2023 Rookie of the Year and was named an NBA All-Star in 2024. He also helped lead Orlando back to the postseason in just his second professional season.
Despite the success, however, the foward played exactly zero games on ESPN for the Magic during the regular season. They then had two games broadcast on ESPN during the postseason.
It’s like comparing apples and oranges, but a fan noticed that Clark’s Fever already have five games scheduled on ESPN (with another on ESPN2) during the regular season.
rightfully so! my time coming🙂↕️ https://t.co/4Y9IvN8On3
— Paolo Banchero (@Pp_doesit) May 22, 2024
This doesn’t bother Banchero, though. He tweeted that Clark “rightfully” deserved the airtime and that his time was coming eventually.
Clark, of course, has done wonders for ratings when playing on national TV. As such, it wasn’t exactly shocking when the Fever were scheduled for a ton of games on a national broadcast, even beyond ESPN.
Here is more from Meghan L. Hall:
“They released their television broadcast schedule for the upcoming season, which will have several games shown on networks like ESPN, ABC and CBS but will also spotlight the Indiana Fever with 36 nationally televised games. That’s more than the defending champion Las Vegas Aces (35 games) and the runner-up New York Liberty (31 games). That’s also a 35 percent increase from the 2023 season when the Fever had 22 games on national television.”
Clark is on national TV a lot but if the Magic keep winning, Banchero will have that opportunity soon as well.
