Portnoy says three NBA players bigger than Caitlin

Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy has taken an curiosity in Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark since her breakthrough at Iowa in 2023. Portnoy continuously attends Fever games and often praises Clark on-line.

Speaking with Rachel DeMita on the ‘Courtside Club’ podcast ahead of the 2025-26 NBA season, Portnoy was requested which NBA players are “bigger” than Clark.

One instantly got here to thoughts. “LeBron [James] is clearly gigantic,” Portnoy said. The Los Angeles Lakers ahead is about to play in his twenty third NBA season, and he’ll be joined for a second consecutive campaign alongside his son, Bronny.

Portnoy listed two more. “[Caitlin and Steph Curry] are fairly shut, I might say. Maybe Steph still…Luke [Doncic] possibly, because of the worldwide side of what he does,” he added.

Curry is making ready for his seventeenth season with the Golden State Warriors. The guard has lengthy been a rankings behemoth: The Athletic reported that he was answerable for 5 of the 10 most seen games during the 2020/21 season. While the Warriors missed the playoffs, Curry’s team was still answerable for the two most-viewed “postseason” cable-only (non-ABC) games: the two Western Conference play-in games.

Doncic was shockingly traded to the Los Angeles Lakers midway through last season. The Slovenian-born combo-guard is widely popular in international circles, as Portnoy correctly pointed out.

The Barstool CEO went on to compare Clark to NFL stars. “Football-wise, [Patrick] Mahomes maybe, [Travis] Kelce is probably bigger because of the Taylor [Swift] stuff,” he said. “She’s up there. Taylor Swift doesn’t just like befriend you want that until you’re up there.”

Clark, 23. noticed her fame additional skyrocket when Swift, a 14-time Grammy-winner and the boyfriend of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, invited her to hold out in the Kelce’s box at a Chiefs game during the 2024 season.

The Fever star missed most of the 2025 season with a collection of ailing accidents. Last 12 months, Clark was partially answerable for the league’s explosion in viewership as she captured the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year award.

DON’T MISS:

Clark’s Indiana team managed to return within a game of the 2025 WNBA finals without her in the playoffs. The current finals see the Las Vegas Aces up 2-0 over the Phoenix Mercury, with a possible decisive Game 3 set for Wednesday evening.