Caitlin Clark admitted Friday that her portrayal in the media — and the discourse that follows controversial moments in games — can be “emotionally exhausting,” and the Fever star, in an interview with ESPN, criticizing reporters who call out her character without knowing her.
“I think there’s just like a false characterization of who I am sometimes,” Clark said in a sit-down interview with the network. “And I get it, like as a reporter or as a blogger, you can write an opinion piece and that’s your job and whatever, but at the same time, you don’t know me. We’ve never had a conversation.
“I get people have a job to do, but at the same time, like don’t make accusations about my characters and who I am when you don’t know me.”
It’s unclear when the interview with Clark was recorded, but it dropped amid another cycle filled with controversial headlines about the third-year guard — who entered the WNBA as the No. 1 pick after a historic collegiate career and has continued to set records with the Fever.
USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour invoked Emmett Till in a column about Clark arguing calls and flopping, and then the same outlet also incorrectly reported in a separate story that Clark skipped the WNBA’s Orange Carpet event Thursday to get her hair done in Des Moines, Iowa.
But instead, the outlet later corrected, Clark was actually attending an event for the Caitlin Clark Foundation in her hometown.
Clark was also in headlines earlier this season when Alyssa Thomas’ fist made contact with her throat during the Fever’s game against the Mercury, which led to Thomas receiving death threats and being called racial slurs in the aftermath of the incident.
In her interview with ESPN, when asked specifically about the Thomas moment, Clark, addressing everything that followed after the foul itself was committed, said “it seems like there’s always a moment like that in every season that I’ve played so far.”
“I think for myself, like I just try to navigate it the best I can,” Clark said. “It gets exhausting. It gets frustrating. … When I walk out of the locker room, I shouldn’t be, not fearful what the conversation is gonna be. But it’s emotionally exhausting. It’s draining. It makes your shoulders tense because, you know, people don’t want to talk about the basketball. They just want to stir it up and make it something else.”
Clark said that some of the coverage surrounding her isn’t “always based in reality,” with media being able to control the narrative — and “that can be confusing to somebody who’s 24 and trying to navigate life and trying to help her team win the championship,” she said.
The Fever and Clark entered the All-Star break with a 17-10 record that sits fifth in the standing, with Clark averaging a career-best 21.0 points along with 7.9 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game.
