For the 2024 WNBA season, no other player is going to have a target on their back as much as Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark. The former Iowa star was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft and is coming into the league with with lofty expectations. Being the No. 1 pick alone comes with massive expectations. But she’s entering the league with a lot of hype not seen in quite some time. But Clark is ready to meet those challenges as she told media during her introductory press conference as per Myles Ehrlich of Winsidr.
“I think I was a little bit of a headcase starting my college career, like I just expected so much of myself constantly, and also I wanted Iowa to be so good all the time. When I committed to Iowa, I said we’re going to go to the Final Four so I felt like there was a lot of pressure for me to accomplish that,” Clark said.
“Once I really relied on the people around me and realized that not everything is gonna be perfect, I feel like that’s when I really played my best basketball and thrived and kind of matured in that way. I think grace is a thing for everybody, that everybody can use in their life. Not everybody is perfect, people make mistakes and I think that’s the biggest thing. There’s gonna be learning curves for me, I’m not gonna come out here and score 40 points a game. . .I think it’s just learning from the amazing people I have around me and having a lot of fun,” Clark continued.
“Don’t loose who I am, that’s what’s gotten me to this point. Continue to be myself and I think a lot of good will come from that,” Clark said.
Is reality going to hit Caitlin Clark in the WNBA?
To this point, Caitlin Clark has been on top of the college basketball world, but it’s now time to transition to the pros and her rookie season with the Fever. She’s going to form a duo with a ton of potential alongside Aliyah Boston, last season’s No. 1 overall pick.
There’s already been more than enough discourse surrounding how Clark is going to perform as a rookie with the Fever from fans, media and players alike. As herself said, there’s going to be a learning curve. But it’s not a stretch of the imagination to say that she’s going to be a contender for the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award.
While Clark may not initially see the type of scoring and offensive success she had at Iowa, one aspect of her game that should translate right away is her passing and playmaking. She was arguably the top playmaker in college basketball but that part of her game wasn’t talked about as much as her scoring was.
Clark averaged 8.9 assists during her final season at Iowa and was a triple-double threat. She’ll obviously have more talented scoring threats around her in the WNBA and it stands to reason that she might be among the league leaders in assists as a rookie.
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