PHOENIX — There was a carnival atmosphere for Sunday’s nationally televised game between the Indiana Fever and Phoenix Mercury at the Footprint Center, and Caitlin Clark was clearly the reason why.
As one more stop on the heralded rookie’s tour of the other 11 WNBA cities, the sellout crowd of 17,071 was the largest to attend a Mercury game here since 1997 and the second-largest home crowd in team history. The Mercury had averaged 9,809 for their first nine home games.
All eyes have been on Clark through a collegiate career at Iowa during which she set an NCAA scoring record and led her team to the championship game of the Women’s Final Four, where it fell to South Carolina.
“It’s been crazy the way things have evolved,” Clark said before the Fever’s 88-82 win. “The pace of things, all the attention during my final year in college, the NCAA Final Four, and now I can’t believe we’re already halfway through the season.”
The crowds have been like this everywhere she goes.
The Footprint fans certainly had split loyalties, cheering for each bucket Clark made and hugely enthusiastic when the road team pulled out a victory. There were tons of Iowa jerseys and Fever garb mixed in.
“It was strange,” said the Mercury’s Diana Taurasi, who has 20 years in the league. “There were people rooting for the other team, but whatever.”
Clark was the headliner, but she wasn’t the star of this game. Clark’s teammate Kelsey Mitchell carried the Fever down the stretch to its seventh victory in 11 games. But Clark still rose to the occasion, falling one rebound shy of recording the first triple-double as a rookie in WNBA history, playing through an undefined illness all game, her coach Christie Sides said afterward.
Clark finished with 15 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds in 39 minutes, 27 seconds, of the 40 minutes. Sides took her out in the game’s final minute because of defensive matchups, she said. But her vaunted shooting from downtown was way off. She hit only 4-of-14 shots and 2-of-10 from beyond the three-point stripe.
She didn’t hit her first basket until 4:25 was remaining in the first quarter. And Clark wasn’t available to meet with the media after the game, although she did have a pregame press conference.
“She’s in with the trainer right now,” Sides said.
It was Taurasi who had some tough words in the preseason for Clark, who came out of Iowa as the first pick in the WNBA draft and stepped into the league with so much fanfare.
Reality is coming, Taurasi said back then. “There’s a level to this thing. And that’s life. You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you’re going to be playing against some grown women [who] have been playing professional basketball for a long time.”
Clark has been pounded, no doubt, and her 6-foot, 155-pound frame has taken a beating. But as the 40-game WNBA season has reached its halfway point, Taurasi’s position has certainly softened, saying Sunday that Clark’s future in the WNBA “is super bright.”
“She’s been amazing,” Taurasi said. “What she’s been able to do in her short career so far has been nothing short of remarkable. What I love about her is that she loves the game. She’s put the work in. There have been a lot of things in her short WNBA career, a lot of pressure on her. But she keeps showing up and getting better.”
For her part, Clark said she has nothing but respect for Taurasi, who at 42 could be eyeing her last professional season. It’s now a mutual admiration society.
“I’ve always admired the way she played the game,” Clark said. “It’s impressive she’s still able to play at such a high level. She’s obviously one of the best players our game has ever seen. When I first started to watch this league as a little kid, it was because of her.”
As fate would have it, Taurasi matched up with Clark defensively a number of times in the game, particularly in the fourth quarter when the lead swung back and forth. Taurasi also outscored her with 19 points.
But that’s the way it goes as a young player tries to find her way under so much scrutiny.
“The same type of eyes were on her at Iowa and she’s found a way to adjust to it,” Mitchell said about Clark. “In the end, it’s the same thing. It’s all basketball.”
