Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark explained that she was upset over comments made by her backcourt partner, Kelsey Mitchell, who said last week that she gets “a lot of flak” from fans from playing in Clark’s spotlight.
During her end-of-season press conference on Thursday, Clark discussed the highs and lows of being under “such a microscope” after she was directly asked about Mitchell.
“As her teammate, it makes you upset, because you care about your teammates so much,” Clark said. “You don’t want any of them to go through something like that. For the people that follow me, obviously there is such a microscope on me, and that kinda of comes with everybody else that I’ve been teammates with, whether that was my time at Iowa or whether that’s been here. It comes with a lot of really great things and then at times there can be some negatives.
“As far as people that have used me to demonstrate racist rhetoric or hate or discrimination, that’s not something I stand for. It’s never been something I’ve stood for. For those of you that know me, you know that’s not what I’m about. That’s not how I was raised. So that’s really disappointing when people do that. … I think for my teammates, obviously there’s a lot of really great things that come with playing here too.”
Clark explained that she talked to Mitchell since the Fever lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Las Vegas Aces, 2-1, on Oct. 1 — and expressed her desire to continue playing with the nine-year veteran, who’s an unrestricted free agent.
“As far as Kelsey, and her future with the organization, she knows how much I love her, and we’ve talked since the season ended,” Clark said. “There’s nobody I’d want to share a backcourt with other than her. I think we had the best season of any back court in the WNBA in the league’s history with what we were able to do.
“I often tell her, ‘I feel like I have the best seat in the house every single night. I get to watch you do your thing and be right next to you and be on the other side of the ball with you.’ I know this organization, we’re going to work our butt off to get her back. We’re going to recruit her as hard as we can… We need her. We love her. And I think more than anything, Kelsey is a really great person.”
Clark mentioned that Mitchell received much-deserved MVP chants from fans this season.
The pair combined for 47 points per game this season to become the highest-scoring teammates in WNBA history.
Mitchell, who spent her first nine seasons with the Fever, scored a career-best 24.7 points per game this season and played her way into the MVP conversation.
Mitchell made waves during her exit interview last week — and she left her future with the Fever up in the air.
“Showing up every day to compete for fans that may or may not like you is hard,” she said. “Playing with CC and having the eyes that she got, we get a lot of flak just for being on her team. And I think that comes with a lot, too.
“I just think that people gotta give us grace. I think this organization is unbelievable, but I think that when it comes to really trying to be yourself, it hasn’t always been easy.”
Mitchell said she going to be “selfish” when deciding where she wants to play next.
