On the court and off, Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark has more than lived up to her pre-draft billing.
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS
Debates about whether Caitlin Clark is a targeted player have been an unwanted element of the Indiana Fever’s season since it tipped off in May.
Beyond a basketball court’s striped limits, no such questions exist.
A little more than an hour prior to the Indiana Fever’s listless 89-84 loss to the Washington Mystics on Wednesday afternoon in a rare noon start, clusters of young girls (and some adults) encircle the lowest levels of Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Most are donning Fever jerseys, T-shirts or hats donning the polarizing rookie guard’s No. 22. Some fans carry signs designed to praise and, in a perfect world, attract the attention of Clark.
Most, however, just use their voices.
“Caitlin … Caitlin (louder) … Caitlin (shouting) …”
Clark hears the requests, but needs to go through the pregame routine of jumpers a foot or two outside the 3-point stripe.
A yellow-shirted team manager repeatedly feeds Clark the basketball in rhythm as the 22-year-old demonstrates her textbook form from the baseline, wing and top of the key. She launches jumpers while going to her right, her left and after passes are aimed straight at her.
Home and away, mass amounts of adulation follow Clark. She’s Taylor Swift with the ability to bury deep 3s, collect the timeliest of steals or flip a no-look pass to an open teammate.
She loves competition, yet isn’t shying away from other responsibilities.
“It never gets tiring. I don’t think that’s anything you take for granted,” said Clark — who, when asked if she remembers her first autograph request that has since touched off thousands all over the country, thinks for a couple of seconds before settling on early in her high school career.
“Then in college is probably when it began to actually pick up.”
In time, the lights inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse are turned off, and player introductions commence. The five Mystics starters first followed by, “Now fans, let’s meet your Indiana Fever.” Second-year forward and reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston is introduced first, followed by Katie Lou Samuelson, Lexi Hull, Kelsey Mitchell and finally Clark.
It doesn’t take long for Clark, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft this spring, to showcase her multi-tiered offensive game, whipping a pass from the top of the key so that an all-by-her-lonesome Samuelson can make a layup for the game’s first points. Forty seconds later, Clark loses her defender with a deft step-back move and drains a triple from the right wing for a quick 5-0 Fever lead.
Unfortunately, Indiana’s defense is essentially a no-show the remainder of the first half, as the Mystics, owner of one of the league’s poorest records (5-17), ride 55% shooting to a 51-37 halftime advantage.
Clark is on pace for a second consecutive triple-double with seven points, five rebounds and seven assists at the break.
The second half is much of the same. Indiana, on its way to turning the ball over an unsightly 23 times, falls behind by 22 points late in the third.
Its only good 10 minutes come last. The Fever opened the fourth period on a 10-0 run, claw their way as close as 85-82 after two Clark free throws at the 1:05 mark, and again at 87-84 on two more Clark charities with 45.2 seconds remaining.
Having dug itself too deep a hole, Indiana gets no closer. Clark finishes with 29 points, 13 assists, five rebounds, five steals and three blocks — but a victory was what she wanted.
“I wasn’t going to give up. I don’t care if we’re down, what was it, 20-plus points?” Clark said afterward. “I don’t want to get beat by 40. We might as well do everything we can to make it close. Ten minutes of basketball is a lot of time.
“I think we got it to three, and it came down to a jump ball. And I probably could have grabbed it and boxed my girl out a little bit better.”
Stat lines such as Clark’s aren’t often laced with accountability.
Clark’s rookie season hasn’t been a stroll through the daisies; she leads the WNBA in turnovers by a wide margin and has been on the receiving end of some hard fouls. All the same, she was averaging 16.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 7.6 assists going into Friday’s game against Phoenix.
But those numbers, impressive as they may be, don’t come close to telling Clark’s entire story.
Prior to home games, the building’s northeast tunnel often resembles a mosh pit of adolescence. Young girls, some boys and even adults want Clark to scrawl her signature on a game program, jersey, basketball or anything else poised to absorb the ink of a Sharpie.
Among those gathered near the south tunnel prior to Wednesday’s game were Brody and Kayla VanderKolk, who drove 448 miles from Waterville, Iowa (population: 109) to watch Clark in an environment previously foreign to them.
Kayla, who is four and a half months pregnant with the couple’s second child, holds a sign seeking ideas for a name. If it’s a boy, Clark is definitely a possibility, while either Caitlin (first name) and Clark (middle name) remain enticing options should it be a girl.
In Iowa, Caitlin Clark does no wrong. Two states to the east, it’s fast becoming that way.
In 2023, the Fever ranked 11th of the WNBA’s 12 franchises in home attendance (4,067). A year earlier, Indiana completely bottomed out with a norm of 1,776, an all-out embarrassment inside a building capable of seating 18,000 spectators.
Compare that to this season. The Fever’s lowest turnout was the 15,022 fans that filed inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse in late May for a game against the Seattle Storm. Now add in the obvious uptick in merchandise and concession sales, and you can clearly see the Caitlin Clark Effect in action.
“We’ve been watching her since her sophomore year at Iowa. It’s really cool seeing her on a different platform, and doing good,” said Brody VanderKolk, 28. “There’s been a lot of talk about whether she was going to be able to step up to the next level.
“She’s just so humble with everything. Whatever is said about her, no matter how the team is doing, she says the right things at the right time, and she backs it up. I think she makes her whole team better.”
