Subscribe
Follow Us
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Without much delay after the Indiana Fever got eliminated by the Connecticut Sun in the 2024 WNBA playoffs, rookie Caitlin Clark was asked about her offseason plans. From this time last year up until now, Clark hasn’t had too much time to continuously rest.
“Are you snitching?” teammate Aliyah Boston bantered Wednesday night at the podium.
“I mean — I don’t — I was focused on beating the Connecticut Sun,” Clark said, and soon followed with a monotone voice. “I haven’t thought too far down the line. I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow. I don’t know what I’m going to do the next day. Maybe play some golf. Think that’s what I’m gonna do until it gets too cold in Indiana. I’ll become a professional golfer.”
There was an interesting wrinkle included in the ESPN broadcast from Wednesday night’s contest when commentator Ryan Ruocco said when talking to Clark on gameday, she relayed that she will “almost definitely not play basketball this offseason.” That rules out popular destinations like the inaugural 3-on-3 Unrivaled League, going overseas, or following teammates to Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball.
Right now, there aren't any other reports of Clark’s plans besides Ruocco’s. Unrivaled, which was co-founded by WNBA veterans Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, has continued to gradually announce its 30-player field, so that’d mean the final eight players to be announced won’t include Clark. It also means Clark isn’t playing 5-on-5 in the states — or abroad.
Fever teammates Kelsey Mitchell, NaLyssa Smith, Lexie Hull, and Grace Berger have played in Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball. The league has about 40 players, sees their teams get redrafted each week, and features 5-on-5 games. The league runs for four weeks in February to late March, which would overlap with Unrivaled. With no basketball plans in her future, Clark would have seven months off until the Fever report for training camp in 2025.
How Caitlin Clark feels physically going into offseason
Caitlin Clark played the second-most minutes on average this season in the WNBA, only trailing Arike Ogunbowale. Clark and Mitchell, the Fever’s backcourt, played all 40 minutes in the Game 2 loss to the Sun, and both of them played in all 40 regular season games too. As a result, Clark has only gotten snippets of rest before the 2024 WNBA Draft and Olympic break within the past year.
Other than that, it was 39 games with Iowa and 42 with the Fever since November 2023.
“Basketball really has consumed my life for a year or so,” Clark said. “It’ll be good for me to reflect back on everything that’s happened. I feel like I didn’t even have time to really reflect on my college career because it ended so fast. And then I came here and was trying to give everything I could for this team… help this team get back to the playoffs… it was special.”
“Taking some time to myself and really enjoying that,” Clark added. “It'll definitely be probably a little weird for me over the course of the first couple weeks. Then I’m sure I’ll get bored and pick up a basketball again.”
Clark said verbatim that she feels pretty good physically after all the nonstop hoops.
“I mean, I’m still young, so,” Clark said. “I don’t know.”
“She could’ve played 40 on Friday,” Fever coach Christie Sides bantered. Boston also joined in.
“I don’t know why they take me out,” Clark joked. “But I mean I feel pretty good. It had to be an adjustment over the course of coming from the college level to the professional level. You’re playing game–day-off–game. You got to really take care of your body… as my career continues to go down the line, that’s something you’re gonna have to take a little more pride in probably.”
As for grading her rookie season, Clark can be stingy about it, but she rated it as solid. But considering all the milestones and accolades she achieved along the way, it feels like she's selling herself short. The scary part, though, is that it seems like Clark is only just getting started, which is the final message she sent forth before she and the Fever embarked on the offseason.
“I feel like I’m just scratching the surface,” Clark said.
