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As Caitlin Clark‘s WNBA career launches with the Indiana Fever, one player outside Indianapolis has her back.
Clark looked up to New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu in high school, which Clark shared about on April 15 when the Fever picked her No. 1 in the draft. The two have met before, and Ionescu offered advice for Clark as her first WNBA game nears on May 14.
“I mean, she’s just starting her career and how she’s been able to push the game forward is amazing,” Ionescu told WNBA reporter Khristina Williams on Monday. “And doing that in college and breaking so many records and knowing that she’s just scratching the surface of what she’s gonna accomplish in the league.”
“And, you know, she knows I’m always rooting for her,” Ionescu added. “I’ve reached out. We’re pretty close, and I just wanna kind of be that person that she could always lean on.”
“And obviously there’s competition, but she, I think, … knows that I’m always in her corner,” Ionescu continued. “The league’s tough. The league’s hard.”
Clark, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, dominated at Iowa amid two Final Four appearances. A basketball phenom from her youth before college, Clark’s superstardom rose to new heights in the past two years.
“She has a target on her back, but you know, … she’s gonna be able to take care of her business,” Ionescu said. “And there’s obviously gonna be kinds of struggles, and she’s gonna have to figure out what it takes to be a pro, but there’s no one, you know, more equipped than she is to do that.”
Ionescu, a No. 1 pick by the Liberty in 2020 out of Oregon, has been one of the top guards in the league for years. She has two All-Star appearances and two All-WNBA Second Team honors.
Caitlin Clark Truly Has a Target on Her Back
Clark is well aware of the target on her back as she expressed herself during Monday’s press conference after training camp. That’s despite the Fever having the No. 1 pick for back-to-back years amid a seven-year playoff drought and no record above .500 since 2015.
Unlike Ionescu, not all WNBA players think Clark is going to take off immediately. Longtime Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi believes it will take time for Clark to adjust.
“Not saying [Clark’s skills] are not gonna translate, because when you’re great at what you do, you’re just gonna get better,” Taurasi told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt on April 6. “But there is gonna be a transition period where you’re gonna have to give yourself some grace as a rookie.”
Caitlin Clark: ‘That’s How You Want It’
Clark acknowledges it will take time to adjust the pro game, too, amid high expectations. That said, she embraces it.
“No matter what happens there’s going to be expectations and pressure on my shoulders and pressure on this team to be really good,” Clark told reporters during Sunday’s press conference. “That’s how you want it.”
“We wouldn’t want anything else. We want people showing up to our games, people expecting us to win a lot of basketball games this year and I’m expecting myself to play really well,” Clark added. “I don’t think it’s anything that’s ever been different for me.”
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