Caitlin Clark has returned her focus to basketball amid her rapid rise to fame over the past two years, as training camp is now open for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.
As the newest member of the team, Clark is learning how he will fit into a new offensive system, creating chemistry with his new teammates and learning the nuances of what it means to be the league’s highest-profile rookie.
Sure, Clark anticipates some obstacles this season; She wouldn’t expect anything less. But giving her full attention to the sport she loves is really all Clark ever wanted.
“I think that’s what I was most excited about, getting all that stuff out of the way,” the former Iowa star said on the first day of Indiana training camp on Sunday. “The draft was awesome, New York City was awesome, Los Angeles was awesome, but I was excited to get here and get back to playing basketball, you know, doing my job.”
Over the past two seasons, these WNBA rookies have created the kind of buzz around women’s basketball that most fans only dreamed of, and Clark is hands down at the head of the class.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, 22, got her first taste of the team’s training camp on Sunday.
She was excited to return to basketball after a busy month of traveling and being drafted.
Clark (center left) in practice with teammates, including Erica Wheeler (center) in Indianapolis
The former Iowa guard participated in practice games as she prepares for the demands of the WNBA.
Ticket sales increased everywhere he appeared, and when Clark’s games were televised, ratings soared. His pursuit of his Division I career scoring record captivated basketball fans across America and he even appeared on ‘Saturday Night Live.’
Perhaps even more fitting is that the transition from established stars to newcomers like Clark officially began the same day another trailblazing artist, Candace Parker, announced her retirement.
But, like Parker, Clark comes into this season with one main goal: winning games.
“I think no matter what happens, there will be expectations and pressure on my shoulders and pressure on this team to be really good.” That’s how you want it,” Clark said. ‘We wouldn’t want anything else. We want people to come to our games, people expect us to win a lot of basketball games this year and I expect to play very well. I don’t think there’s anything that been different for me.”
That kind of conversation is certainly new for Fever.
Indiana hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016, hasn’t recorded a winning season since 2015 and has been virtually irrelevant nationally since the retirement of Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings. Over the past five seasons, the Fever have won 28 games.
Iowa, meanwhile, went 65-12 and had two national runner-up finishes in Clark’s final two college seasons.
But the pairing of Clark and Aliyah Boston, the unanimous WNBA rookie of the year last season, has made Indiana one of the league’s hottest tickets.
Several opponents have already moved games to larger stadiums, and Boston, for its part, is eager to see how quickly Indiana’s new lineup will gel. Clark arrived in town early last week and has since turned heads with his workouts.
‘I think Caitlin has a different eye for the game. You can see how well she passes the ball and how well she throws it,” Boston said. ‘You see her communicating, you see the way she can find you, I mean, her passes are tremendous. I say, ‘Okay, they’ll touch me, let me go down there” just because of how much fun he’s having.”
Clark’s transition from the college level to the professional level may also be accelerated.
For most of the two-and-a-half-hour practice open to the media, Clark worked with Indiana’s starters and true to form, Clark hit 3-pointer after 3-pointer, including some of those trademark 3-pointers from the logo.
The Fever will look to flourish through the background pairing of Clark and Aliyah Boston (r)
Still, it was Clark’s precise passes that caught his teammates and even second-year coach Christie Sides by surprise.
“His ability to space the court for us is just incredible,” Sides said. “We’re going to have five players on the court that can shoot, but her passing ability… you saw some of the passes she made.” I’m more upset about the number of missed layups we had. I think we’re just not used to having someone who can make those passes.
Clark can and will do them, and how the Fever responds to his presence will largely determine Indiana’s success this season.
But the key for Clark will be to quickly acclimate to a new team, a new home and a new style of play for Friday’s preseason opener in Dallas.
“It’s definitely different, but that’s what you hope for when you start a new chapter in your life,” he said. “It’s a fast shot clock, very fast, but I think you all know that’s how I like to play.” So I think it fits my game pretty well. It’s fast paced, much faster than at university and you have to learn faster because you have to focus on Friday.’