Caitlin Clark’s transcendent play, from her brand 3-point taking pictures to her distinctive abilities as a “get forward” passer, has captivated basketball followers from Maine to California. A query that usually arises is how will her recreation translate to the following stage. In a wide-ranging 60-minute interview that may air in full Thursday on the “Sports activities Media Podcast,” WNBA legend Sue Chook stated Clark generally is a WNBA All-Star in her first yr.
“I believe if she performs as much as her potential, sure, that’s life like,” Chook stated. “And, by the way in which, that’s not a knock on anybody within the WNBA. It’s going to be laborious, however I believe she will be able to do it. You do should see what occurs once they get there. You are actually enjoying in opposition to adults and that is their profession. However I do suppose she has an opportunity at having loads of success early, and I believe loads of it comes all the way down to her long-distance taking pictures. That’s her separator. You’re probably not used to guarding folks on the market.”
Chook went on to say that the period Clark is moving into helps complement her type of play. One other WNBA legend, Diana Taurasi, “might have been enjoying the way in which Caitlin is enjoying proper now,” Chook stated, however didn’t come of age in an period to play the way in which Clark performs right now.
Gamers within the WNBA simply aren’t used to guarding shooters that far, Chook stated. Chook retired in 2022 after a 20-year WNBA profession.
Clark has the choice to return to Iowa subsequent yr as a result of additional yr of eligibility due to an NCAA waiver for student-athletes affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. But when she opts to go professional and is chosen by the Indiana Fever with the No. 1 choose, “that may be a actually good roster for her,” Chook stated.
“She’s going to be teaming up with proper out the gate with two actually good submit gamers (Aliyah Boston and NaLyssa Smith) which are going to enrich her,” Chook continued. “There may be precedent for folks popping out of faculty and coming in and enjoying wonderful, gamers akin to Candace Parker, Breanna Stewart, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi and others. However she nonetheless has to return in and do it and there’ll be some rising pains similar to all these gamers I simply listed had.”
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Chook hung out with Clark final December in Iowa Metropolis as a part of an episode of her ESPN+ Authentic collection,“Sue’s Locations,” a 10-episode school basketball travelogue produced alongside Omaha Productions and Phrases + Footage that options Chook darting throughout the nation to study in regards to the historical past and traditions of faculty basketball. (The Clark episode ran on Feb. 14.). The fourth-ranked Hawkeyes will subsequent play at No. 14 Indiana on Thursday evening (8 p.m. ET, Peacock).
Requested why Clark had captured the creativeness of the broader basketball public throughout her time at Iowa, Chook stated it was a mixture of her long-distance taking pictures and being one of many faces of ladies’s school basketball throughout such an ascendent time.
“There are two that stand out essentially the most together with her, and let’s begin together with her long-distance taking pictures,” Chook stated. “The one factor that cancels out folks’s obsession with dunking because it pertains to the comparability between males’s and girls’s basketball is deep taking pictures. If we need to name it the emblem 3, let’s name it that. For no matter cause, males particularly, they don’t hate on it. There’s nothing to hate on as a result of it’s what it’s. So I believe that a part of her recreation lends to folks cheering for it. I believe it’s additionally charming, proper? The best way that she performs with the long-distance taking pictures, it’s charming. Everyone’s fascinated with it. In order that’s one a part of it.”
Chook added: “I believe the opposite half is that girls’s basketball is having a second and that second wanted any person to group up with it. So Caitlin, primarily based on simply the yr by which she was born and doing what she is doing in school proper now, is uniquely positioned to make the most of this second. There are different gamers proper now in school basketball the place you may really feel pleasure. JuJu Watkins is killing it at USC and will arguably find yourself being among the best gamers ever. I’m not saying that loosely; it’s due to the way in which she is beginning her profession.”
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Clark’s choice about whether or not to go away Iowa has turn out to be a serious debate in sports activities media and amongst sports activities followers. Not too long ago, former WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes mentioned that potential rookies like Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese will take time to develop within the WNBA as a result of it’s a veteran-heavy league.
When requested what she would do if she had been Clark, Chook didn’t hesitate.
“If I’m Caitlin Clark, I’m popping out of faculty,” Chook stated.
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(Picture: Morgan Engel / NCAA Photographs through Getty Pictures)