Caitlin Clark: “That’s what I miss the most”

Caitlin Clark, despite being only one season old in professional basketball terms, is one of the most marketable athletes in all of sports. Her collegiate reputation was burgeoning almost by the day during her time at Iowa and held so much fanfare that the 2024 NCAA women’s national championship game, headlined by her, became the most-viewed basketball game since 2019.

Upon concluding the 2023-24 collegiate season and racking up every possible award, Caitlin Clark declared for the WNBA and was a unanimous No. 1 pick by the Indiana Fever. The step-up in level proved to be no big deal for the phenom, as she secured All-Star status and won Rookie of the Year, while also being the league’s assists leader.

In terms of production and delivering to her hype, Clark delivered and then some, breaking no sweat in her transition from collegiate basketball to the pros.

Amid all her success and seamless transition, people questioned if there was any difference at all for Caitlin Clark in terms of life in the WNBA as opposed to life at Iowa. The star guard answered discussed last year in an interview on Monday as part of 247Sports’ coverage of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

“You’re there with your best friends (at Iowa),” Clark said. “And, obviously I have some really good friends on the Fever, too, but there’s nothing like you finish practice and it’s like “Alright, where are we going for breakfast? Where are we going for lunch? Who’s coming?

“At Iowa, as everybody knows, we were very close-knit. That was my family. We loved each other.”

Caitlin Clark’s friendship with fellow Iowa star Kate Martin has been well documented, and their continued friendship after both of them were drafted into the WNBA has been nothing short of wholesome.

Clark’s account of the culture at Iowa and the bond they shared as a team and how she misses the comfort provided by her friends in her life as a professional highlights the sacrifices and difficulties that athletes face in their journey to the top.

Caitlin Clark spent four years at Iowa, and her relationship with the college is as strong as ever

They say never forget your roots when you become successful, and it appears that Caitlin Clark has taken that to heart. Even after becoming the most recognizable name in women’s basketball, the star has remained close to the people around her at Iowa, and the interview serves as proof.

Clark has been back at Iowa, and her reaction to being back to the place she called home for four years was indicative of how close she holds her experience there.

Clark has also publicly joked about how she hopes to recruit her best friend, Kate Martin, to the Indiana Fever. The Iowa connection may be reignited in the future and could be a success story of friendship in the professional basketball circuit that reverberates for a long time.

The love Caitlin Clark holds for Iowa is not unilateral, with the Iowa House of Representatives unanimously passing a resolution to honor her by declaring Feb. 22 as “Caitlin Clark Day.”

The Hawkeyes have also announced that Clark’s No. 22 will be retired by the program. To achieve such levels of adulation from a program and a state is no mean feat for the 23-year-old and only speaks volumes of what is expected from the phenom by the people who have backed her for years.

Edited by Joseph Schiefelbein