Description

Caitlin Clark arrived in the WNBA already a household name, having become the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer and a two-time national player of the year at Iowa. The Indiana Fever made her the first overall pick in the 2024 draft, and she delivered immediately: Rookie of the Year, a spot on the All-WNBA First Team as just the fifth rookie in league history to earn that honor, and the league lead in assists, all while the Fever set a franchise attendance record and games she played drew television numbers the WNBA had rarely seen. The follow-up season told a different story. Clark had never missed a game in four years at Iowa or during her entire rookie campaign, but 2025 turned into an extended fight with her own body. A strained quad four games in cost her several weeks, and after a brief return she suffered a left groin injury, then a right groin injury that eventually ended her season in September, complicated further by a bone bruise in her ankle picked up while rehabbing. She played in only 13 games, and even then she was productive, averaging 16.5 points, 8.8 assists and 5.0 rebounds in 2025, not playing more than five consecutive games throughout the summer. She was still voted an All-Star but had to withdraw from the three-point contest and the All-Star Game itself, which her own Fever were hosting in Indianapolis, and she missed the Commissioner's Cup final that Indiana went on to win. What makes the season notable is not the injuries alone but what happened around them. Even with its most famous player sidelined for most of the year, Clark helped women's basketball grow in both college and the WNBA, and the league had record attendance this season even with Clark missing most of the season. Off the court her commercial pull kept climbing regardless of games played: the two-time WNBA All-Star reportedly has more jersey sales in the U.S. than all but one NBA player, having officially surpassed LeBron James on the jersey sales list over the last two years. That gap between an injury-shortened stat line and an ever-expanding fan base is the real story of her second season. This card comes from that year. It is a Franchise Features insert from 2025 Panini Donruss WNBA, not a base rookie issue but a second-year card, and the specific version carries an Orange Laser parallel treatment that is serial numbered to a print run of 399, a short print within the set. It is a card built around a player whose value to collectors has never tracked neatly with her games-played column, issued in the same year she was largely watching from the sideline rather than adding to the highlight reel that made her famous in the first place.