Caitlin Clark held her final media session of the season Thursday and said she has talked with Kelsey Mitchell since her backcourt mate spoke about online hate she has received and the difficulty of playing with the Indiana Fever\u00a0at times.<\/p>\n
The intense attention the organization has gotten since Clark joined has attracted a vocal group that has been abusive to Fever players and others around the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cShowing up every day to compete for fans that may or may not like you is hard,\u201d Mitchell had said Saturday during her season-ending media session.<\/p>\n
It \u201cmakes you upset,\u201d Clark said of what her teammate has gone through, noting that Mitchell is a \u201cgood soul.\u201d Clark denounced anyone who would spew abuse in her name but also said she appreciates the genuine fans who have supported her, the team and the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as people that have used me to demonstrate racist rhetoric or hate or discrimination, that\u2019s not something I stand for,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThat\u2019s never been something I\u2019ve stood for. For those of you that know me, you know that\u2019s not what I\u2019m about. It\u2019s not how I was raised, so that\u2019s really disappointing when people do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it kind of gets into this larger discussion in mainstream sports of what people go through. I think just recently I saw\u00a0Coco Gauff\u00a0came out and kind of talked about her experience as well. So anytime I see something like that, [it] makes me upset, makes me sad, makes me really disappointed. Because that\u2019s not who I am. It\u2019s not what I\u2019m about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retaining Mitchell, who is an unrestricted free agent after setting the WNBA single-season scoring record, is the top priority for the Fever, but she made it clear that on-court, basketball-related factors won\u2019t be the only influence on her decision. Mitchell has played all nine seasons with Indiana after being the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor my teammates, obviously, there\u2019s a lot of really great things that come with playing here, too,\u201d Clark said. \u201cAnd as far as Kelsey and our future with her, with the organization, she knows how much I love her, and we\u2019ve talked since the season has ended. And there\u2019s nobody I would want to share the backcourt with other than her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know this organization is, we\u2019re going to work our butt off to get her back. We\u2019re going to recruit her as hard as we can. Every player that is signed to a contract is going to recruit her as hard as we can. We need her. We love her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope for the rest of my career I get to play alongside her,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
Mitchell isn\u2019t the first player to voice her frustration with fans, particularly those associated with Indiana who crossed the line from critical to abusive. A\u2019ja Wilson\u00a0of the Aces got into an altercation with a fan during Game 2 of the postseason opening round inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Aces teammate Jackie Young took issue with a pair of fans sitting courtside in Indiana in August. None of those involved were found to have violated the league\u2019s fan code of conduct. Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas said she received death threats and was called racial slurs after receiving a one-game suspension for making contact with Clark\u2019s throat with her first.<\/p>\n
General manager Amber Cox said last week that \u201cthe attacks on our fanbases have no basis in reality, and they need to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Fever player Brianna Turner, who serves as treasurer of the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association, disagreed, posting on social media, \u201cThis is an unequivocally false statement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark said she doesn\u2019t remember the last time she has checked her direct messages on social media, specifically to avoid all of the bitter talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just try to block out the noise the best I can,\u201d Clark said. \u201cObviously, I\u2019ve been under this microscope with the lights bright for six years now. So you kind of figure out how to navigate it. That doesn\u2019t mean everything\u2019s easy for me. That doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t moments that are hard. And that goes the same [for] players in this league, that doesn\u2019t make it easy for them. It doesn\u2019t mean that there aren\u2019t hard days. But, obviously, the WNBA has grown so much, and there\u2019s more and more eyeballs. I think for the real fans that do show up and do support and do respect, I applaud you. And there are a lot of you, and that\u2019s not just here in Indianapolis. That\u2019s across the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s certainly a line, and that can\u2019t be crossed,\u201d she added. \u201cI think any of us, and any person in their right mind, know that there\u2019s certain rhetoric that\u2019s just not OK, and that\u2019s not something I\u2019ve ever stood for. But at the same time, there are a lot of really great fans and a lot of fans that I really truly enjoy getting to play in front of and I\u2019m really thankful for. And I thank them for coming out. They made it a great season and were loud every single night.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for me, I think just I do the best I can to block it out, block out the noise, and try to limit my time on social media the best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark held her final media session of the season Thursday and said she has talked with Kelsey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":925648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,78995,82,630],"class_list":["post-925647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-indiana-fever-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-158","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}