"Light-skinned Michael Jordan in female form" - Jason Whitlock predicts Juju Watkins vs. Caitlin Clark in WNBA as NBA’s biggest threat

Analyst Jason Whitlock used JuJu Watkins' remarkable performance against UCLA to insist that the WNBA will be bigger than the NBA in a few years. The sophomore led her team to a 71-60 win on Thursday.

In the wake of this commanding win, Whitlock used Watkins to make his point about the W's potential compared to the NBA. He said that the quality of players the W will receive in the future will put the competition in a good position to compete with the NBA.

"I'm not exaggerating, this looks like light-skinned Kobe Bryant, light-skinned Michael Jordan in a female form. My No. 1 conclusion from watching all of this: the NBA is done. The clock is ticking, as I've been saying for the past year, the women's game is going to surpass the men's game. The WNBA is going to be more popular than the NBA. It will happen in our lifetime, in the next three or five years," Whitlock said.

In 39 minutes, Watkins went off with 38 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, eight blocks and one assist. She shot 46.2% from the field and 80% from the free-throw line. The Trojans have only lost two games, first against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in November and against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Feb. 2.

Basketball fans will find the prospect of JuJu Watkins and Caitlin Clark competing in the WNBA intriguing. The USC star is expected to make a lot of noise in the W as soon as she joins the league.

Charles Barkley says JuJu Watkins will overcome Caitlin Clark as best WNBA player

Charles Barkley joined "Throwbacks" with Matt Leinart and Jerry Ferrara in October to praise JuJu Watkins. So much so that he thinks Watkins would eventually beat Clark as the best player in the league.

"I tell all them bitter, angry girls in the WNBA who are upset about Caitlin Clark to move over more because JuJu is special. Number one, I want to give a shoutout to Caitlin for what she's done for women's basketball over the last three years. It's been incredible, and I wish those women would embrace it, but that girl JuJu is the real deal.

"... Caitlin is a supernova and JuJu probably's a better player. So those two women going to be running the WNBA for the next 10, 12, 14, 15, 20 years, basically."

There's still time to see Watkins develop and meet the minimum age required to enter the WNBA, but she's already making noise.