It’s hard to imagine that one woman with a ponytail can completely transform a game and reshape the futures of thousands of women, but that’s exactly what basketball comet Caitlin Clark has done.

That does not change after an up-and-down WNBA debut Tuesday in the Indiana Fever’s 92-71 loss to the Connecticut Sun.

Clark scored a game-high 20 points, despite being shut out with foul trouble in the first quarter. She also set a WNBA record for a debut with 10 turnovers.

The physicality rattled her. The spotlight, for once, seemed bright enough to penetrate her rugged and well-tested exterior. The learning curve was waiting at the tip.

There are far bigger stats, though, that explain Clark’s game and massive influence.

The WNBA’s commissioner recently said the league would spend $50 million across the next two seasons to charter flights for teams, a league first. That does not happen without the arrival of the money train on which Clark has shoveled coal.

The NCAA championship game between Clark’s University of Iowa Hawkeyes and South Carolina averaged 18.7 million viewers, peaking at 24 million, to blow away the men’s final between UConn and Purdue (14.82 million).

It was the most-watched basketball game — regardless of gender, college or pro — since 2019 and the first time the women have outgunned the men.

The eyeballs the long-range sniper and elite passer has lured meant more people know about Cameron Brink, Kamilla Cardoso, Angel Reese and others. It is the same rising-tide, boat-lifting feel Tiger Woods brought to the PGA Tour.

University of Iowa star Caitlin Clark is swarmed for autographs during a team celebration April 10 in Iowa City, Iowa.
(Charlie Neibergall/AP)

As someone who also attended Iowa, it’s been fascinating to see and feel the impact thousands of miles away.

In my neighborhood, a friend, Mick, said: “The only (women’s) games I’ve watched in my life were her games.” It became appointment television for another friend, Bill, who never once felt the urge to watch women’s basketball before. On a recent trip to Japan, we saw a few No. 22 shirts and heard people talking about Clark more than once.

It has illuminated the staggering reach and epic rise of a player and a sport.

The game against the Sun was the first opening-night sellout for the franchise in more than two decades. Fever games are being moved to larger arenas, including a May 24 matchup with the Los Angeles Sparks that hustled from The Walter Pyramid at Long Beach State to Crypto.com Arena — home of the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers.

Toronto is being awarded an expansion franchise. Dick’s Sporting Goods is riding the momentum with a WNBA apparel line for girls. The ripples just keep on a-ripplin’.

Fever coach Christie Sides framed the enormity of the load Clark is shouldering.

“She’s a rookie in this league,” Sides said. “This is the best league in the world. We’ve got to teach her what these games are going to look like for her every single night and we’ve got to eliminate some of that pressure for her.”

Clark acknowledged it, too, according to The Athletic.

“I know the outside world thinks I’m going to do some amazing things, but that might take some time,” Clark said. “And if things aren’t perfect right away or one game’s not as amazing as I want it to be, give yourself grace, continue to learn, continue to get better from it.”

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark fires up a 3-pointer Tuesday during her WNBA debut against the Connecticut Sun.
(Jessica Hill/AP)

What Clark is doing rivals if not surpasses the pioneering paths and ceiling-punching Woods and Michael Jordan accomplished across golf and basketball in a significant way.

Clark has brought millions upon millions of grandmothers, mothers and young girls along for the ride while earning the begrudging respect of more and more men. She has stiff-armed gender expectations, while wadding up perceived limitations and setting them ablaze.

More watch now. More dream now.

There’s on-court turbulence to come, without a doubt. There are only 144 women in the world deemed talented enough to earn roster spots on WNBA teams. She will spar with elite talent nightly.

As the 20 points showed, though, the two-time women’s player of the year and all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I history is elite, too, and will produce, even in the roughest of moments of transition.

There’s plenty of time to learn and polish the rest.

The first lesson came from San Diego high school star DiJonai Carrington, the Sun guard from Horizon Christian who blanketed Clark from tip to tunnel. The daughter of former Chargers player Darren Carrington made Clark feel what the WNBA is like with a bruising reminder of the road ahead.

No matter what that path looks like, Clark already has cemented an unmistakable truth: We’re paying attention.

That’s no small thing. No small thing at all.