Caitlin Clark Is Soaring Again: Rookie Reasserts Superstar Status

Caitlin Clark Is Soaring Again: Rookie Reasserts Superstar Status

After early struggles as a professional, the acclaimed No. 1 pick continues to lift her improving Indiana team and the entire WNBA

By Jason Gay

Aug. 19, 2024 5:30 am ET

Remember the Great Caitlin Clark WNBA Freakout of June 2024?

America’s beloved college basketball sensation was stuck in the salt mines, struggling to adapt to the pro game. Clark was having trouble with her shot, her handle and her wobbly new team as unimpressed opponents lined up to deliver a public humbling to the acclaimed rookie.

A “Caitlin Clark reality check” was said to be under way, and wow, did every blowhard in America weigh in with an opinion.

This much was true: surrounded by apex talent, the No. 1 draft pick appeared at times to be overmatched, unable to summon the magic which propelled the distance-shooting Iowan to scholastic fame and glory.

And this profound reality check lasted, what…a month?

On Sunday, a revived Clark led her surging WNBA team, the Indiana Fever, to a 92-75 thumping of the Seattle Storm. It was Indiana’s fourth win in its last five games as the Fever—which started the season a brutal 1-8—improved to 13-15, a mark which is not stellar, but already surpasses last year’s win total and puts them well in the hunt for a playoff slot.

The Fever were paced by 27 points from Kelsey Mitchell and a dazzling 3-point barrage from Lexie Hull, who dumped in a career high 22. Aliyah Boston added 15 rebounds to go with nine points and eight assists.

But it’s Clark who’s stirring this drink. The 22-year-old from West Des Moines is the obvious architect of this in-season Indiana overhaul, which has carried on after the league’s Olympic break and also includes a noisy road win over Phoenix—like the Storm, a motivated, veteran-led playoff contender.

Against Seattle, Clark finished with 23 points, five rebounds and nine assists, but it’s her confidence that leaps out. The former Hawkeye has regained not just her shot, but her charisma and control. On the court, almost all of the action is again flowing through her as she creates opportunities for others. Her vision—her ability to find cutters or players flying upcourt—remains outrageously precise.

Caitlin Clark goes to the basket against Seattle’s Jewell Loyd. Photo: Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Here’s the reality: Clark isn’t a struggling professional anymore. Currently 1st in the league in assists and 12th in scoring, she’s tearing up the WNBA, very clearly one of the planet’s best players.

It’s been fun to watch—the Iowa vibes are back. Clark’s resurgence is the best non-Olympic American sports story of the summer, even if Clark shouldn’t have been a non-Olympic story.

By the time the Games came around, even the unofficial czar of women’s basketball, Dawn Staley, acknowledged that Clark’s play had risen to Team USA caliber. Voices like Draymond Green argued the country blew an immense opportunity by leaving Clark home.

Paris gold was still won, but I agree with Draymond: a chance to lift the sport was missed. Oh well. Clark will use the snub for fuel, and Los Angeles 2028 beckons.

And it wasn’t the worst thing for Clark to get a couple of weeks off. Her early challenges were at least partly a function of a relentless calendar which saw her sprint from the NCAA tournament final to the WNBA draft to her professional debut within six weeks.

It was the kind of schedule that would grind up anyone, even the best women’s collegiate shooter of all time. Those early weeks, fighting through double teams, searching for her range, trying to find her equilibrium with new teammates Clark looked gassed and frustrated.

No longer. Clark is killing it. So is fellow rookie Angel Reese, who has stormed straight out of LSU into Chicago and currently leads the WNBA in rebounding.

It’s an old lesson: talent is talent. Clark and Reese, Rookie of the Year candidates both, have kept their heads down and done the work. Opponents don’t have to love them, but they can’t ignore them.

Meanwhile, the notion that Clark Mania would elevate the entire league…it still applies. Fever games remain sellouts everywhere. WNBA ratings are way up—Sunday’s game was telecast on old-fashioned rabbit ears ABC.

The fuss over Clark has also kicked up more attention for deserving WNBA sensations like A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu. Wilson was the star of the Olympic team, and Stewart and Ionescu’s New York Liberty are threatening to run away with the WNBA—they’re 23-4 at the moment.

Against Seattle, Caitlin Clark finished with 23 points, five rebounds and nine assists.

The early season freakout is a relic, as is the tiresome pitting of Clark vs. The League. In its place is fresh excitement about the playoffs, and the likely prospect of getting Clark and the Fever competing on that stage. (Reese and the Chicago Sky, too.)

To be clear: there was definitely early agitation toward Clark—and the surrounding Clark Mania. This is a league with veterans who were eager to show that the women’s game hadn’t been invented in the past six months. Clark was raising everyone’s profile and potential income, but competitors are competitors. What happened to her happens to high-profile rookies all the time.

What’s been impressive is how Clark has ridden the roller coaster. She didn’t get too down in the down moments, nor is she buying into the sudden, uh, fever over the Fever. She handled the Olympic snub with grace and she’s been open about the improvements she still needs to make. Her 3-point percentage (32.9) is five points below her senior season average, and she’s turning the ball over at an eye-watering rate—5.5 per game.

She’ll get better. It was true in June and it’s true now. Caitlin Clark’s a basketball superstar. We all knew it then, and we definitely know it now.