Caitlin Clark says the relentless off-court noise surrounding her career has left her drained, telling ESPN the constant controversy makes her shoulders tense every time she leaves the locker room.
“When I walk out of the locker room, I shouldn’t be not fearful of what the conversation is gonna be… it’s emotionally exhausting. It’s draining,” the Indiana Fever guard said on SportsCenter. “People don’t wanna talk about the basketball. They just wanna stir it up and make something else.”
Clark, 24, addressed the recent incident in which Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas struck her in the throat during a game. She said moments like that have become a recurring pattern.
“It seems like there’s always a moment like that in every season that I’ve played so far,” Clark said. “It gets exhausting. It gets frustrating.”
Clark argued the foul should have been handled by officials on the spot and moved past, comparing it to how similar incidents are treated in the NBA.
“That’s a perfect example of like yeah, it was a hard foul and it should have been dealt with in the moment,” she said. “You see it happen in the NBA all the time. It’s not anything more than that. It’s basketball.”
The former No. 1 overall pick also pushed back on what she called false characterizations of her personality by reporters and bloggers who have never spoken with her.
“There’s just like a false characterization of who I am sometimes,” Clark said. “You don’t know me. Like we’ve never had a conversation. Don’t make accusations about my character and who I am when you don’t know me.”
Despite the frustrations, Clark said nothing will undermine her connection to the sport itself.
“The reason I play it is when I step in between the lines, I love it,” she said. “This was always my dream. And nobody should ever try to take that away from me.”
