An error regarding Caitlin Clark’s milestone highlights the incredibly high benchmark she set in her debut year, which was first published by The Sporting News. You can follow The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking this link.
Olivia Miles, a guard for the Minnesota Lynx, is putting together an incredibly historic debut campaign in the WNBA. Yet, even her stellar performance fell short of eclipsing one of Caitlin Clark’s most remarkable freshman milestones. This detail grew in significance when commentator Zena Keita erroneously claimed during an episode of The Athletic’s “No Offseason” podcast that Miles had established a new league record for rookie assists.
That record remains Clark’s.
The standout Indiana Fever guard concluded her inaugural 2024 season with a total of 337 assists. In reality, Miles had only eclipsed the Minnesota franchise mark for assists by a first-year player, rather than the league-wide standard. Following pushback from Clark’s fanbase regarding the blunder, Keita addressed the issue on X, explaining that she misspoke after a long day of recording several podcast episodes. She subsequently offered an apology for broadcasting the inaccurate stat, noting that the error ought to have been flagged prior to the show’s release.
This clarification does not take away from the incredible year Miles is having. Instead, it highlights the extraordinarily lofty standard established by Clark.
Olivia Miles pursues Caitlin Clark’s freshman milestones
Miles has emerged as one of the most compelling narratives of the 2026 campaign. The Lynx newcomer headed into the World Cup hiatus as a key piece of one of the top squads in the WNBA. Her 21-point performance during Minnesota’s 89-81 defeat against the Atlanta Dream further solidified her standing as a primary contender in the Rookie of the Year conversation.
Furthermore, Miles is on track to potentially eclipse Clark’s rookie mark of 769 points, an opportunity aided by an expanded regular-season calendar. Even with the extra matchups taken into account, achieving this feat would remain an extraordinary milestone.
Chasing down the assist milestone is a far more difficult task.
Throughout her first season, Clark dished out an average of 8.4 assists per game while carrying a massive offensive workload for Indiana. She excelled at sparking fast breaks, running the pick-and-roll, and constantly exploiting opposing defenses whenever they collapsed on her. The occurrence of a commentator mistakenly awarding the record to Miles is highly telling. Clark’s statistical achievements have set such a dominant benchmark that any incoming playmaker is instantly compared to her standard.
Miles deserves to have her outstanding achievements reported with precision, just as Clark does.
While a single misstatement sparked a needless debate, the core basketball discussion remains highly relevant. The WNBA has seen the arrival of two extraordinary playmakers over a three-year stretch, both of whom have completely redefined the expectations for freshman point guards. Miles has plenty of games left to build on her phenomenal debut, but Clark’s rookie assist record looks secure for the foreseeable future.
