WNBA Legend Tamika Catchings: Caitlin Clark Taking League ‘To A Whole New Level’

On another sold-out night at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse Friday against the Las Vegas Aces, rookie megastar Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever broke yet another record.

This time, she set the WNBA mark for most assists in a season. Not most assists by a rookie. No, most assists by anybody in the 25-year history of the league.

Meanwhile, former Fever legend Tamika Catchings sat in her normal seat, where she’s watched Clark take the franchise and the WNBA to new heights in terms of ratings and general popularity.

Like Clark, who has led the Fever to their first playoff berth since 2016, Catchings was the face of the franchise from 2001-2016, leading the Fever to the 2012 WNBA title. She was a 10-time All Star, the 2011 MVP and won four Olympic gold medals for Team USA from 2004-2016.

Currently, she has no prescribed role with the Fever; she is the franchise’s legend emeritus, someone who helps players on the current roster whenever she’s asked for her counsel.

“My job now is to be me,” she said with a smile.

She has watched Clark flourish while her team, which lost eight of its first nine games this season, has turned it completely around and is now poised to reach the postseason after going 9-4 since the Olympic break.

The Fever are now 20-19 after the brutal, 1-8 start and reside in the sixth spot in the WNBA playoffs. They are likely to play Connecticut or Minnesota in the first round.

“I would hate to be playing the Fever (in the upcoming playoffs) right now,” Catchings said. “Because I still don’t think we’re playing our best basketball. We’ve had injuries, players in and out, but you look at this team with Caitlin, Aliyah (Boston), Kelsey (Mitchell), the big three, who are you going to help off of? In my mind, every championship team has to have the three-headed monster. Right now we have three with a potential for four (Lexie Hull or NaLyssa Smith). Whoever has to play the Fever is going to be like `Oh crap.’”

It all starts and ends with Clark, who not only turned the Fever into appointment television, but made them one of the most compelling teams in the league. National TV ratings have been the highest in WNBA history.

She’s super-charged the league, made it more relevant than it ever has before. After a shaky start – the Fever began the season playing 11 games in 20 days, including five games against the best teams in the league (New York, Connecticut, Las Vegas) – Clark has been on a tear along with her team.

A partial listing of some of the marks she’s set:

• Set the WNBA single-game record with 19 assists;
• Sixth player in history to record multiple triple doubles (two);
• Three-time rookie of the month, three-time player of the week, player of the month in August;
• Leads the league in assists per game;
• Most points scored by a rookie;
• Owns the WNBA record for most 3-point makes by a rookie;
• Set franchise record for most double-doubles (14)

“She’s rejuvenated not just the franchise but the whole city,” Catchings said. “Remember, the NBA wasn’t what it is now until you had Magic Johnson and Larry Bird come into the league, and then Jordan and Kobe and LeBron and the others after that. In our league, we had players who started it, but she’s taken it to a whole new level.

“All the things we’ve fought for and continue to fight for, it’s great now to see so much progress. We’re back in the playoffs, the excitement around the city is incredible; it wasn’t even like this when I played. Last year, you could come in and sit anywhere you wanted. Now, we’ve got a scholar-athlete event, in the past, they’d say, ‘Hey pick a game, so easy.’ It’s not that way anymore. It’s become a tough ticket.”

Until Clark came along, WNBA teams traveled commercially. But soon after Clark arrived, the league made the jump to charters.

“Wish we had charters when I played,” Catchings said. “It makes such a difference. But that’s the impact she’s had.”

How popular are the Fever? They’ve out-drawn the Indiana Pacers on a per-game basis, the same Pacers who won 47 games last season and reached the Eastern Conference Finals.

Clark, the all-time leading collegiate scorer among men and women, started the season with some hiccups. The team wasn’t winning and her turnover numbers were way too high. Part of the issue was, she was making passes her teammates were not prepared to corral.

With time together, time on task, a chance to get to know one another as players and human beings, that has changed. She still turns it over, but not with the same frequency. Now, her teammates are ready for those passes.

“She was making passes here that she made at Iowa, except her Iowa teammates were already adjusted to the way she plays,” Catchings said. “A lot of times, our players weren’t expecting those passes. But like everything, time and practice helped everybody get on the same page. Now, they’re expecting those passes.”

She’s got some Sue Bird in her, some Ticha Penicheiro. She can shoot from distance (the average distance of her 3-pointers is greater than that of Steph Curry) and she is the best passer in the league and even her rebounding numbers are gaudy for a slight, 6-foot tall point guard.

“What impresses me most is the way she handles herself on and off the court – grace and humility,” Catchings said. “Her court vision is the biggest thing, being able to deliver the ball, knowing who needs the ball and when; a lot of point guards miss that. But now you see Aliyah and Kelsey getting their touches, that’s just Caitlin seeing the floor, seeing the game and things before they happen, disbursing the ball at the right times to the right people.

“She’s like all great players. She sees the game differently. She understands it. Her basketball IQ is off the charts. I saw that the first time I saw her when I was doing games for ESPN, watching her as a freshman. Remember, defenses are geared toward stopping her and she’s still adjusted and found a way to dominate games.”

Clark’s rookie year hasn’t been all puppies and balloons. Early in the season, she was physically targeted several times, including a flagrant foul by Chicago’s Chennedy Carter when the Sky player shoulder checked Clark onto the court.

There’s also been a lot of social media tumult, with fellow players, notably Connecticut’s Dijonai Carrington, suggesting Clark wasn’t properly checking on her fan base, who she called out for being racially insensitive. The jealousy, assuming that’s what it was, was off the charts.

“I don’t know how she does it, the way she keeps rising above it,” Catchings said. “Back when I played, there was no social media. It’s a whole new world now. Some of it between her and Angel Reese, when you look at the popularity of our game, I feel like a lot of that helped.

“Rivalries are good. People love tuning into controversy; it gives people something to write and talk about. I love listening to her press conferences. Even with the whole Olympic uproar (when Clark did not make the 2024 Olympic team that won gold in Paris), you didn’t hear anything negative from her. She’s always rising above things. People want to get drawn into these things and she just won’t go there. I thought some of what went on early this year was unfortunate, but she handled it really well.”

Clark has been a revelatory figure this season, the prohibitive favorite for Rookie of the Year honors and she figures to get some votes in the MVP balloting (although Vegas’ A’ja Wilson should win in a runaway).

But there’s still an area of improvement Catchings hopes to see from Clark.

“She’s got to focus on her talent and not get caught up in the refs,” Catchings said.

Friday, she received her sixth technical foul of the year; one more comes with a 1-game suspension.

“She has the game and even when she’s frustrated and talking, for the most part she’s been able to pull herself back into the game where a lot of people would lose their minds and never get back into the play,” Catchings said. “But she’ll continue to grow that. Losing sucks when you’re used to winning, especially early. She’s still adjusting. Point guard is the hardest position to adjust to your rookie year because you have so much responsibility for running the offense.”

In less than one season, Clark has super-charged the Fever and the WNBA, the ultimate change-agent in a sport that’s been looking for an entrée into the American sports consciousness.

And after all that, the fact is, she’s just getting started.