- Slug: Sports-Caitlin Clark Spotlight, Mercury, 660 words.
- 4 photos available.
By Joshua Heron
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – A father skipped celebrating his son’s birthday Sunday in Dallas. Instead, he sat courtside to witness the anticipated matchup between the Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever at Footprint Center with his brother’s two children.
As he sat and watched players warm up before tip-off, his mind wasn’t on the perks that came with his luxury seats; rather, he expressed anger through his raw, expletive speech that they missed one person walking out of the tunnel en route to the court for pregame warmups: Fever phenom Caitlin Clark.
Nearby, a middle-aged woman held up a “We love you #22” poster near women’s basketball fans of all ages showing Clark support by wearing or holding her Fever and Iowa Hawkeyes gear in hopes of getting her autograph above the same arena tunnel where the uncle missed the star rookie come out.
“The same eyes were on her in Iowa, so I think she’s mastered on how it’s supposed to go and hats off to her for dealing with it,” said Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell on Clark’s handling of the attention. “I think for us it’s obviously an adjustment as we are new to Caitlin and Caitlin is new to us, so it’s an adjustment as far as those eyes.”
An energetic 17,071 fans watched Clark score 15 points and dish out 12 assists. She finished one rebound shy of a triple-double as the Fever snatched an 88-82 victory over the Mercury thanks to three other Fever starters scoring in double digits. The game proved worthy enough to stop Phoenix Suns superstar Devin Booker, Suns coach Mike Budenholzer and owner Matt Ishbia took a break from the preparation for Sunday’s impending NBA free agency period to sit courtside at the contest.
The matchup, marketed as “The GOAT” versus “The Rook,” presented the first of three matchups this season between Clark and Mercury guard Diana Taurasi.
Taurasi inadvertently added to the intrigue with her misinterpreted comments during an April interview with ESPN that “reality was coming” for the rookie in her first WNBA season. But any perceived animosity between the veteran and newcomer was quickly put to rest when Taurasi hugged Clark before tip-off.
From the opening minutes, the Mercury’s third-largest crowd since the franchise’s inaugural season cheered no matter which team scored – a testament to fans simply enjoying the competition and appreciating the state of the WNBA.
The Valley fans gave Clark a standing ovation when she walked off the court at the end of the game – a nod to the transformative impact she and other rookies like Angel Reese have had on women’s basketball over the past two years.
Fever forward Victaria Saxton, who squared off against Clark in the 2023 Women’s Final Four as a member of the South Carolina Gamecocks, admitted that she didn’t know what to expect from Clark as a former foe turned teammate.
More than a year after the Hawkeyes beat the Gamecocks in the semifinals, Saxton loves being Clark’s teammate “on the court, off the court, (and) in the locker room,” she told Cronkite News.
Clark exited Footprint Center victorious over Taurasi, one of the first people in the WNBA who “she really knew about and supported and idolized and wanted to be like.”
But before entering the tunnel to enter the locker room, she stopped to sign autographs despite not feeling well with a migraine.
A new generation of young fans now revere Clark the same way she admired Taurasi. She certainly wears a heavy crown, but Fagbenle and the Fever aren’t expecting perfection.
“Day to day, we are all growing. She’s not perfect, I’m not perfect, nobody is perfect,” Fagbenle said. “So I think she’s also finding out ways to be a leader on this team, to be an effective leader not just by example but vocally as well. As we learn and grow with each other, I think she’ll learn more about how to do that.”
For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.
