There’s no pressure on me, says Clark
Fans following Fever’s new star to WNBA
NEW YORK – Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark is embracing the moment as she brings super-sized star power from the collegiate game to the WNBA.
The first pick in the draft left television ratings shattered in her wake as Iowa’s fearsome sharpshooter and now she is bringing more eyes to the top-flight American league ahead of her regular-season debut next week.
Clark is no stranger to the media circus after breaking the all-time NCAA scoring record in her final college season and told reporters that she was keeping her focus on the court.
“It’s just something you embrace and you enjoy and you navigate it,” Clark told reporters on Thursday.
“Maybe it’ll be different or it’ll be super loud or whatever it is. But, more than anything, I think it’s just an exciting opportunity. So just embrace it and go about it like that more than feeling overwhelmed.”
Clark got a taste of an ecstatic home crowd for the first time on Thursday when the Fever hosted the Atlanta Dream in a preseason contest.
Indiana fans have embraced the six-foot guard, who received a standing ovation from the crowd at a Pacers NBA playoffs game last month. Ticket sales for the Fever were more than 13 times higher on resale platform StubHub compared to last year.
Clark’s teammate, last year’s unanimous rookie of the year Aliyah Boston, said the Fever had energy around them going into the season.
CHICAGO – Angel Reese has earned every opportunity she’s gotten.
She also considers them payback. The WNBA did not begin the day Reese, Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso and Cam Brink were drafted last month. The fame Reese and the other high-profile rookies have, and the perks it affords them, are byproducts of the nearly three decades women like Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Reese’s own coach, Teresa Weatherspoon, have put into growing interest in the league and women’s basketball.
When Reese goes to an event like Monday night’s Met Gala, she carries all of those women with her.
“The people that have played before me (and) a lot of the great players already in the league, they deserve this,” Reese said Tuesday night, ahead of the