Caitlin Clark Reveals 'Huge Challenge' She Struggled With in WNBA Transition to Fever
Indiana Fever icon Caitlin Clark's epic 2024 year had way more highs than lows.
From taking her team to the 2024 NCAA National Championship game all the way through her winning Time Athlete of the Year, the accolades and accomplishments that Clark added to her collection last year are truly staggering.
However, it wasn't all good vibes for the 22-year-old. Not only did she lose that National Championship game, but her Fever team started the season with a 1-8 record and looked hapless on the court.
They ultimately turned things around, of course, but the beginning of Clark's first WNBA season certainly started rocky.
She spoke about this tumultuous time to Travis and Jason Kelce as part of her appearance on the "New Heights" podcast that was released on January 2.
"You come in as a rookie, and... you're trying to figure out a new environment, new teammates. You don't want to say too much, you don't want to say too little, and it's just so hard," Clark said.
"But in my scenario... you're already highly thought of. People are turning to you to be something or be someone. So it's hard. You're trying to get your feet wet, but also not do too much. But I think what's what I struggled in early on is I don't know what to say, I don't know how to say it, I don't know how they're going to react," she added.
She later said, "I also had a lot of really good vets around me too, so I feel very grateful for that. And we had a fairly young team too, so people had been through it fairly recently, so they knew how I felt. But I feel like that definitely is a huge challenge, and that goes for whatever professional sport. You're trying to learn, but also people are looking at you, you've got to perform and be what they drafted you to be."
You could tell Caitlin didn’t want to come in and try to take over at the beginning of the year. Good clip pic.twitter.com/FwACWEEeAW
— Ken Swift (@kenswift) January 2, 2025
Props to Clark for handling these challenges with a ton of grace, which is now she can now look back upon them from the other side.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.