Caitlin Clark in Adversity Reveals What Kind of Teammate She Really Is

 

Bản chép lời  [Music]  Welcome to another episode of the Adrien  Ross Show, where sports and culture  connect. First of all, I got to say if I  seem a little different, moving  differently,  spaced differently, it’s because I’m  standing. And I’m standing because my  cat took over my chair. One of my cats  took over my chair, tried to get her to  move. Cole said not moving, dug her  claws in. So, I have an adjustable desk,  so I’m able to raise it up. So, just in  case I seem, I don’t know, taller or  something. You know why I want to spend  a little bit of time shouting out  Caitlyn Clark.

Caitlin Clark in Adversity Reveals What Kind of Teammate She Really Is

And no, I’m not shouting  her out because of a logo three she hit  or because of a pinpoint pass that led  to one of her many assists. I’m not  shouting her out because she gave a  great postgame conference that we’re  used to seeing her do. In fact, I’m  shouting her out because we haven’t had  an opportunity to see those things  recently. And yet, she has handled  herself with incredible poise, with  incredible grace. Now, her teammates,  when asked, will tell you, yes, she’s  frustrated. Every competitor would be,  but at least in public, she’s doing a  really good job of being able to handle  it, and also still cheering on her  teammates, wanting her teammates to win,  wanting them to excel right there with  them. You know, some people get injured,  and they don’t come to games after they  get injured, and they certainly, many of  them don’t travel with the team. 

 

Caitlyn’s traveling with the team.  Caitlyn’s obviously there when they’re  in Gamebridge. She’s there for her  teammates. She’s up off the bench when  something good happens. Yeah, she’s up  off the bench when she’s got a word for  the official, too. But she is being the  consmate teammate. And when you are a  competitor who wants to play basketball  as much as Caitlyn does, who works so  hard in the offseason as she did, man,  you’ve got to say, “I’m going to dig  deep because my teammates need me.” And  not only does she realize her teammates  need her, do you guys see the autographs  that she was signing in Chicago where  someone who went to the game I know said  there were probably h half the people  there were wearing CC attire. Caitlyn  Clark recognizes that she’s important to  the game. She’s important to young boys,  young girls, old folk. She’s just  important  to what’s going on in basketball, in the  sports world, whether she’s playing or  not. And it would be so easy, I imagine,  to just chill. I don’t have to do  anything. I’m not playing. I don’t have  to sign autographs. I don’t have to do  any of this stuff. I’m entitled to have  a pity party. She’s not doing that. And  I know it means a lot to her teammates.  Obviously means a lot to fans as we’re  I’m about to show you. And I just had to  shout her out because man, I know she  wants the ball, but she can’t right now.  So, she’s doing what she can do.

Caitlin Clark trolls Fever teammates | Fox News

Whether  in practice, whether during a game,  whether before the game, she’s doing the  things that make me call her a consmate  professional and teammate. So, first of  all, let’s go over to courtside during  the game. the fever game against  Chicago. Obviously, Kelsey Mitchell was  on fire and Caitlyn Clark and her  teammates were loving it. Let’s go over  to X. I’m going to be going to a couple  different X account. So, the links will  be in the description of this video. So,  you see the caption here when Kelsey  Mitchell knocks down her sixth triple of  the night. And what do we see? We see  Caitlyn Clark, the triple lady herself,  excited. You got Natasha Howard excited.  You got Sophie Cunningham excited. Now  again, Caitlyn Clark can’t play and she  wants to be out there balling, but she’s  up cheering on her teammates.

Natasha  Howard, she didn’t have any points. She  only played 12 minutes. What is she  doing? Cheering on her teammate. You see  Sophie Cunningham who always brings the  energy, but she didn’t have a super  duper night or day, I should say, Sunday  either, but they’re together. They’re  cheering them on. And we’ve heard Sophie  Cunningham say before that she’s never  been on a team with the chemistry this  team has. So, shout out to all of them  and especially for Caitlyn because she  can’t play right now. That’s in the  game. Let’s go to practice. We’re going  to go to Scott Agnes’ YouTube page. You  know how they end their practices with  the half court shot? Well, the rookie  Michaela Timson, she was the winner. And  Caitlyn Clark couldn’t have been more  excited for her teammate.  [Music]  I love seeing that because again,  teammates, there’s KK about to take that  shot.

 

There’s CC and CC’s hands go  straight up in the air when that shot  goes down.  [Music]  I mean, look at Caitlyn like a little  kid.  [Music]  whole team excited for the rookie. And  of course, Caitlyn, it stands out to me  because of the situation she’s in. Now,  it’s one thing to be a consumate  professional when dealing with your  teammates. It’s a whole different thing.  It’s a whole higher level when you talk  about making yourself available to fans.  You’re not even playing. You want to be  on the court. You’re dealing with injury  and you’re out there still making  yourself available to fans on the road.  Listen, some people get injured and they  don’t even travel with the team, many of  them. Caitlyn Clark is showing up at  Gamebridge. She’s also showing up on the  road and taking her time like she did in  Chicago, signing autographs and making  herself available. And someone I know  was at the game and she said that half  the people there had to be wearing  Indiana Fever attire and most of that  was Caitlyn Clark attire specifically.  So before the game she’s signing  autographs. She’s among the among the  young people, the old people. You got  boys, girls, men, women.

 

Why does she do  that when she’s not She doesn’t have to  do that. Caitlyn Clark recognizes what  she means to the game. She understands  that a lot of these people show up at  games, they want to see her. She can’t  be out there playing, but she still  wants to give them something. That’s why  her answer to questions about pressure  are different from other people because  she recognizes  what she means to the game and how many  people spent money and traveled and  planned to see her play. They can’t see  her play, but she can still say, “Hey, I  mean, you paid your money. You didn’t  know I was going to be injured.” And  maybe you, you know, maybe you bought  your ticket after, you know, I was going  to be injured for for a chance to maybe  get an opportunity to get an autograph  or or to say hello. And she takes that  seriously. And I have a lot of respect  for that because she wants to be playing  basketball. Like, she didn’t get into  basketball to just to sign autographs.  She got in there to play. And with that  came tremendous eyeballs, tremendous  amount of of fans. And she wants to make  sure that they get an opportunity to do  for for she wants to do for them what  she said someone did for her. I used to  be that person. And so a huge shout out  to her cuz she doesn’t have to do it,  but she does it and they appreciate it.  So, we’re going to go and look at some  of that footage of her pregame in  Chicago.  Do you see the different ages there?  Fast forward a little bit. 

 

Now, check out the Chicago Sky little  girls who are so excited about having an  opportunity to meet Caitlyn Clark.  And one of those girls ended up crying.  I don’t know if you’ve seen the footage  of that, but it meant a lot to her.  And the result was 20 full minutes of  non-stop smiles, hugs, and happy tears.  Now, that’s just a little bit of all the  mingling, if you will, Caitlyn Clark did  with the fans and the signing of  autographs and the smiles and all those  things. I’m going to end by going back  to Caitlyn with her teammates after they  left the court upon defeating the  Chicago Sky. Everybody’s doing the  little dub thing with their with their  hands and Caitlyn’s right in the mix.  Caption says, “Nothing like getting a  nice little dub. Walk off with the squad  after securing the win in Chicago.”  But also, let’s take a moment for KK.  Okay. She was that moment today. She’s  that girl always. Thank you.  Nothing  like a nice little D.  So in fever language there is the squad  and the whole squad got the win. Now you  notice there are people there who played  a whole lot and people who didn’t play a  lot and yet they’re all a part of the  squad. They’re a team. Now I know  there’s a whole lot of noise out there. 

 

Thankfully, I have a feeling Caitlyn  Clark doesn’t partake in a whole lot of  that noise. Very smart. I kind of fall  in that category as well. I know there’s  a lot of stuff people want to pit  teammate against teammate and all that,  but Caitlyn Clark is cheering her  teammates on. Caitlyn Clark is there for  people who come to see her teammates  play. So, I say let’s go Fever. But like  I said, I definitely wanted to give a  shout out for Caitlyn Clark because it’s  not easy to be sidelined with an injury  when you want nothing more than the  play. And some people, they wouldn’t do  the stuff that she does. So, it’s not a  logo three I’m talking about. It’s not  an assist. It’s not a postgame press  conference. It’s being the consmate  professional and more importantly, the  consumate teammate. I will catch you  next time, God willing. God bless you  abundantly.