Shohei Ohtani and Caitlin Clark top list of most influential athletes
Both players were among the most outstanding athletes in American and world sports.
Caitlin Clark and Shohei Ohtani.
The year 2024 has been an exceptional one for American sports, as not only have leagues and teams generated great profits, but athletes, individually, have multiplied their earnings thanks to contracts and earnings off the field through their commercial arrangements.
When basketball player Caitlin Clark won TIME’s Athlete of the Year, many thought the title should have gone to Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani, but now it seems the two mega athletes have found common ground thanks to their earnings, according to essentiallysports.com.
Caitlin Clark shines in first workout with new Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White
Sports Business Journal (SBJ) published its list of the most influential people in the sports business and at the top are Clark and Ohtani, who SBJ describes as “newcomers”.
Others include Elliott Hill, Michele Kang, Pat McAfee, Egon Durban, Greg Mondre and Edward Rogers. SBJ makes it clear that no name is at the top and the list is not ranked.
Ohtani and Clark’s salaries are diametrically opposed
Although Ohtani’s $700 million contract with the Dodgers was just surpassed by Juan Soto’s $765 million deal with the Mets, the Japanese star remains one of the highest-earning athletes in sports.
His net worth currently stands at $85.3 million, according to Forbes.
While Clark’s salary in the WNBA is $76,535 for 2024, as part of a four-year, $338,056 contract.
Shohei Ohtani: Raising the bar for american Baseball with Japanese culture
However, it is their sponsors and other deals that have helped propel their names onto this list.
Indiana Fever Gaurd, the WNBA team Clark plays for, currently sponsors brands such as Nike, Goldman Sachs, Wilson, Gatorade, State Farm, Gainbridge, and more.
Ohtani and Clark steal the spotlight in professional sports
However, despite all the attention she attracted to the WNBA this year, many thought that the TIME honor should have gone to the World Series-winning Dodgers baseball player.
After all, not everyone can sign a record-breaking contract never seen before in all sports, in addition to winning the MLB MVP, and then lead their team to the World Series.
In addition, Ohtani made history by inaugurating the 50/50 club in MLB (50 home runs and 50 stolen bases).
Shohei Ohtani is clearly in a league of his own and he wasn’t even pitching this year. However, it could be similarly argued that no one has had a better rookie season than the WNBA Rookie of the Year, nor has anyone singularly affected the sport quite like No. 22 has.
Since Ohtani burst onto the scene, he has been hyped and lived up to it spectacularly. An outstanding player in Japan in 2017, his arrival as a two-way player was sure to mark a shift in the way baseball was played in the United States, and so it proved.
But it’s been like this for more than eight years. In that almost decade, no one gets tired of talking about the Japanese marvel, while Caitlin Clark is slightly different, newer and her fame is not even half a decade old.
Before that, she was a collegiate sensation with Iowa and has just finished her first season as a professional athlete.
“I don’t know what athlete had a better year than her. What athlete? Tell me, I’m listening,” Ma$se said on the Come and Talk 2 Me podcast.
MORE in MARCA
Why wasn’t Travis Hunter’s father at the Heisman Trophy ceremony with his mother? | MarcaMarca
Bianca Censori stuns fans with surprising style shift in Tokyo outing with Kanye West | MarcaMarca
“She took a college team that didn’t have anybody to the NCAA Championship. Then she took a team that hadn’t been in the playoffs in years in Indiana to the playoffs. Then she broke all the WNBA rookie records along the way while doing it,” he added.
Leaving aside the overall success of the teams (because a player can only do so much for herself if her team does not help equally), the impact of Caitlin Clark has been singular for many observers, and she has just finished her first year.
Cameron Brink’s major career announcement ‘sparks’ excitement around the WNBA
Brink‘s rookie season was cut short due to injury
Lapresse
After starring as the anchor of the Stanford Cardinal, Cameron Brink became the #2 overall selection in the 2024 WNBA Draft — one spot behind Caitlin Clark. Now the centerpiece of the Los Angeles Sparks‘ rebuild, Brink began her rookie season in fine form for a growing, maturing team with a championship history.
But in a cruel twist of fate, Brink’s rookie season in the WNBA ended prematurely due to a torn ACL in her left knee. Brink continues to rehabilitate the injury six months after she sustained it, but exciting news about her future has come to light that promises to alter the course of her nascent pro career.
Brink to join Unrivaled
The offseason Unrivaled league begins next month in Miami, an opportunity for WNBA stars like Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier to continue competing in the league’s lengthy offseason. It was confimed Tuesday that Brink has become the 3-on-3 league’s newest member, signing a multi-season contract that will see her take the court for the Lunar Owls in 2026.
Brink’s new teammates in the offseason league include star guards Natasha Cloud and Skylar Diggins-Smith, in addition to reigning Defensive Player of the Year Collier and reigning All-Star Game MVP Allisha Gray. Even though she won’t take the court for another year, Brink has revealed to People magazine that a conversation with her godbrother — one Stephen Curry — helped her come to a decision.
“He thinks it’s a great idea and he knows I love the round three basketball,” Brink explained.
MORE in MARCA
Bianca Censori stuns fans with surprising style shift in Tokyo outing with Kanye West | MarcaMarca
Mike Tyson turns the page on Jake Paul with a ‘challenging’ venture to rehabilitate his image | MarcaMarca
Though Brink should be ready for the start of the 2025 WNBA season — the league’s longest ever, with a 44-game schedule — she believes that joining Unrivaled will make her a better basketball player, allowing her to hone her skills as the Sparks continue to build toward title contention.
“It’s just a really great way to train in a different way and build up your skill, not playing five-on-five,” Brink told People. “It’s just going to be completely different and I think it’s really going to aid people with their
