As Caitlin Clark approached the on-court decal where her name and number are etched into Iowa Hawkeyes history, her steps got smaller, her eyes got bigger, and the rim seemed closer than it really was.
Her defender waited just past the logo marking the 36-foot rainbow that broke the NCAA all-time scoring record, a logically safe distance from which to guard the most dangerous shooter in women’s basketball. But for Clark, whose confidence breaks convention, the space became a bit of a dare—an opportunity to compete, if only with herself. In her return to Iowa’s campus for the Indiana Fever’s exhibition game against the Brazilian national team, a marker of greatness morphed into a personal challenge.
As the third quarter of the blowout win wound down, basketball’s greatest show-woman was in pursuit of a showstopping shot. When she was more than a foot behind the logo, she rose up to take her shot and nailed a triple, more than 36 feet from the rim (and almost 4 feet farther than the longest shot she made in her rookie WNBA season). She did what she had done for years as a Hawkeye, finding the right opening to not only meet but also transcend the moment:
Clark has many rare gifts, but her most important one might be a level of hand-eye coordination that the rest of us can’t even grasp. It has allowed her to score from the kickoff as a child soccer star, dominate the Gatorade Lab at the Super Bowl, hold her own as a golfer at pro-ams, and toss T-shirts deep into the crowd at NBA games. In basketball, there are many names for what she does: Long bombs. Logo 3s. None of them quite do her justice. Shot by shot, Clark has turned a circus shot into the main draw of her game, a prayer into a pillar. What is magic for most players has become mundane for her—only it never feels mundane because she is always dancing on the edges of her ability.
“I was like, ‘Oh, why not? They let me dribble into it.’ And I always am further back than I actually think,” Clark told ESPN’s Holly Rowe after the game, echoing the surprise she felt over a year ago when she saw how far back her all-time scoring record shot was.
As Caitlin enters year two and the Fever embark on their quest for a title, their preseason opener was a useful reminder of the lessons she learned at Iowa: When talent, intuition, focus, and faith collide, a player—and a team—can exceed even their wildest dreams.
A season ago, the WNBA preseason wasn’t even nationally televised; this year, there are four national broadcasts, and fans are able to stream games. The average resale price was $440 for Sunday’s game, which sold out 37 minutes after tickets were released. The fans in the arena discovered what WNBA fans everywhere eventually found out last season: You just have to catch Clark live to see what sorcery she’ll try next. She’s the face of a franchise remaking itself in her image: embracing pressure and stating its ambitions with a vision and chutzpah that match Clark’s.
Clark boiled down what success would look like this season to two words: “a championship.”
The Fever are matching her state of urgency. This offseason, the team brought back Kelly Krauskopf, who built the Fever’s championship roster in 2012 before becoming the Pacers’ assistant GM, to run the front office and pull off a transformative summer. Her first move was bringing back another familiar face, Stephanie White, a former Fever player and assistant, to replace Christie Sides as head coach.
Coaches tend to be the most wary of high expectations and the burden that comes with them, but White already sang the revamped roster’s praises in training camp, telling reporters that it was the most talented group she had ever coached.
Indiana has now assembled a roster befitting its transcendent star. This summer, it added Natasha Howard, DeWanna Bonner, and Syd Colson—a trio with seven championships among them—as well as Sophie Cunningham, a 3-and-D wing who’s played in the Finals with the Phoenix Mercury, and rookie forward Mikayla Timpson, who boasts the kind of defensive versatility and at-rim gravity that White values. Last year, according to ESPN, the Fever were the rawest team in the postseason, with 19 games of collective playoff experience. This year’s roster boasts a combined 213.
But on Sunday, it was Clark shepherding her teammates through a new experience that—if Indiana capitalizes on the attention its star commands, on and off the court—could become their new reality.
“When we were driving in, people were like, ‘Why are people tailgating?’” Clark recounted to Rowe before the game. “I’m like, ‘No, that’s how much they love women’s basketball here.’ Honestly, I saw more Fever gear than Iowa gear driving in. And they not only supported me but supported my new teammates, too, and have loved watching us play. They’re gonna rally around them and have some fun.”
Brazil didn’t offer much in the form of resistance, which made Indiana’s 108-44 drubbing feel reminiscent of any time Clark’s Hawkeyes blew out a mid-major. But there were plenty of highlights hinting at what’s to come this season. The Fever’s final box score was downright Iowa-esque: 15 3s on 45 percent shooting, 25 assists on 39 field goals.
As the Fever ran up the score and the ecstasy of the crowd grew, time seemed to fold in on itself. The distance between Iowa’s past and what could be Indiana’s future collapsed.
“I think it's hard to put into words what exactly it means to me,” Clark said of the homecoming. “It's almost overwhelming, to a point. I'm just very, very thankful to be able to come back to a place that continues to support me. Something about this gym just makes me play well. And these shoes. I don't know. There's something about it. These are the moments that you never take for granted and you kind of just want to stay in for forever.” It was a touching soliloquy from a player who doesn’t often wax nostalgic, who is too busy trying to make more history to reflect on the history she has made.
She is a person firmly grounded in the present, in the day-to-day tasks that will help her accomplish her goals. And this day might have been one of them. It felt important for her new teammates to get a taste of the life she lived for almost two storybook seasons, a life they could live if they commit to the extra pass, to picking up opponents 90 feet from the rim, to running off every miss.
For a Fever team that’s now carrying championship expectations, the game was a portal into Clark’s power. Every sacrifice is in service of winning but also spreads the joy of women’s basketball to places it's never reached before.
“I felt like I was from Iowa,” Indiana guard Kelsey Mitchell told the ESPN broadcast midway through the game. After seeing Clark drill a 36-footer, she added: “I had never seen that in my life. Now, I get to see it in person. I kinda feel like a fan. I’m in admiration of what she’s been able to do for her state and her city. It’s amazing.”
This was more than a preseason game. It was a celebration, a reunion, a blueprint. The myth of Caitlin Clark continues to unfold before our eyes. After 221 days, she’s back, and the world around her is evolving.
