WNBA legend Brittney Griner is warning Caitlin Clark about the differences between college and professional basketball.
“It’s different, when you come from college to the pros,” Griner told People in a May 8 interview. “I went from top dog to my numbers going down a bit. You’re going up against grown women. This is how they feed their families. This is not just for the love of the [game]. This is their livelihood.”
But she had positive things to say about the impact the Clark phenomenon has had on the league. Griner’s comments came after controversial comments made by her Phoenix Mercury teammate Diana Taurasi, who said that “reality is coming” in an interview with ESPN SportsCenter’s Scott Van Pelt.
Brittney Griner Says the ‘Hype ‘ Around Caitlin Clark & Other Players Is ‘Amazing for the League’
GettyBrittney Griner.
Griner believes the hype around Clark is a good thing overall.
“The hype that Caitlin and some others have right now is amazing for the league,” Brittney Griner, 33, told People Magazine in an exclusive interview, which was published on the magazine’s website on April 8. “There’s good talent coming in.”
Griner also told People that she thinks Clark will have some “growing pains.”
“I had to get stronger, lock in a little more. There will be some growing [pains] for her, but she’ll be fine,” Griner said in the interview.
Griner’s comments came after her teammate Diana Taurasi ignited accusations that she was giving Clark some “subtle shade” – according to USA Today – when she said, according to USA Today’s Nancy Armour on X, “I don’t watch preseason (games).”
Diana Taurasi on Caitlin Clark coming to WNBA “Reality is coming….you look superhuman playing against some 18 years olds but you’re going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time”
“Look, SVP. Reality is coming. There’s levels to this thing. And that’s just life, we all went through it. You see it on the NBA side, and you’re going to see it on this side. You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you’re going to come with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time,” Taurasi said to Scott Van Pelt on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
Brittney Griner & Caitlin Clark Are Likely to Meet on the Basketball Court on June 30
GettyCaitlin Clark during a May 3 WNBA game.
According to the WNBA, Griner is currently a “member of the 2014 WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury.” Griner was a “member of Team USA’s 2016 gold medal team during 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro” and played for Baylor University, according to the WNBA’s website.
Griner stands 6 foot 9 inches tall and weighs 205 pounds, according to the WNBA. Griner was the first pick in the WNBA draft in 2013.
Clark is a 6-foot guard who plays for the Indiana Fever, according to the WNBA. She was a star player at the University of Iowa.
The Indiana Fever and Phoenix Mercury are scheduled to meet on the court on June 30, which could see a Clark-Griner match-up, according to the WNBA’s schedule.
Griner has been speaking out about her imprisonment in a Russian prison as the WNBA season takes off. She told The New York Times on May 2 that the incident had changed her play.
“I don’t feel like I really got my body back until right now,” she told The Times. “When I look back at the videos, it’s cringe. The season, any pictures from last year — I don’t want to see it or look at it.” She had a lot of self-doubt and didn’t think she could do it. “Maybe I should stop. Maybe I’ll never be the same player that I was before. Maybe this was the big rift in my career, where it’s like, I’m never going to get to that top.”
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Brittney Griner Has a Warning for Caitlin Clark About Professional Basketball