Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has been criticized as of late for her on-court behavior, with some in the WNBA thinking she has become prone to emotional outbursts. Scenes of her clashing with the coaching staff and referees have become heavily analyzed.
However, Clark doesn’t think that her emotionality is what’s wrong with her game. Speaking ahead of Indiana’s clash with the Washington Mystics, she talked about the subject, defending her emotion as one of her strengths as a player:
“I don’t think I would be as good a player if I were very stoic and straight-faced all the time. You know, I always think you want your mind to be neutral, but like you also want to be excited and passionate and fiery and fisty, and maybe you have a moment with the ref in there, or maybe you get super excited and get the crowd hyped up like that. That’s what’s so fun about competitive sports, that’s what I like watching, competitive sports, and basketball is like one of the best environments to do that because the fans are right on top of you…”
“I think that’s why a lot of people have enjoyed watching over the course of my career… I wouldn’t be the player that I am if it weren’t for everyone who was cheering me on. People pushing me to be better, you know.”
Despite the criticisms, Clark’s on-court performances have been better than last year’s outings. She’s averaging 18.7 points per game, an improvement over her 16.5 points per game last season. It’s still lower than the 19.2 points per game of her rookie year.
It’s important to note that her second season was significantly limited due to recurring injuries.
Coach Steph White on her late May clash with Caitlin Clark
On May 30th, during a defeat to the Portland Fire, Caitlin Clark was benched mid-game with a poor six-point effort. This led to a clear confrontation between Clark and coach Stephanie White, who put in rookie Raven Johnson.
This is one of the episodes that have been brought up to point out the Indiana Fever’s stars’ lack of discipline. Both coach and player dismissed the importance of the event right after the game, with Stephanie White stating:
“As far as we were concerned, the moment died right then,” White said. “We can’t control the outside narrative. We can’t control where people choose to take a snippet of an instance in a game or whatever it might be and run with it.”
Indiana plays the Washington Mystics on the road this Monday night.
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