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Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark has appeared in just 13 games this season. A quad strain and two separate groin injuries have sidelined her for most of the 2025 WNBA season, and there is currently no timetable for her return.
Two of Clark’s 13 appearances this season have come against the Golden State Valkyries and her former collegiate teammate Kate Martin. Clark and Martin spent four seasons together on the Iowa Hawkeyes Women’s Basketball Team, and have stayed close friends throughout their respective professional careers.
While Clark is of course the bigger star between she and Martin, the latter is undefeated against her friend at the WNBA level.
While Clark has endured a challenging second WNBA season due to injuries, Martin has experienced challenges of her own. Selected by Golden State in the expansion draft, Martin has seen her role fluctuate under first-year head coach Natalie Nakase.
Off the court, Martin remains a popular fixture. Her 470,000 Instagram followers make her one of the league’s most popular young players, and she has leveraged that for different brand deals.
On Monday, Martin shared a sponsored Instagram post for her deal with ATHLETA. She showed off multiple outfits and asked her followers to choose their favorite one. Among those to drop a vote was Clark.
“Outfit 2 for sure,” Clark commented.
Spending four seasons together at Iowa, making it to the NCAA National Championship game in 2023 and 2024, Clark and Martin have a deep bond. Each selected in last year’s WNBA Draft, the two began their professional careers at the same time and have remained close.
As previously mentioned, Martin has not lost to Clark as WNBA opponents. Following a win over the Fever earlier this season, Martin spoke about seeing Indiana embrace her close friend.
“It’s just super cool how the city’s embraced her, and I just think that’s always cool to see one of your best friends thriving,” Martin said to Matt Lively of CBS Sports Bay Area.
Here’s Kate Martin after the Valkyries win on the importance of snapping a skid, the love felt here in Indy, and staying at the hotel where Caitlin Clarks poster is plastered. @KPIXtv pic.twitter.com/8scCOegWKH
— Matt Lively (@mattblively) July 9, 2025
Clark has even spoken about her desire to eventually team back up with Martin in the WNBA.
“Hopefully I can recruit her to the Fever somehow, some way one day, who knows?” Clark said earlier this year (via Marisa Ingeme of The Telegraph). “I’m gonna try to figure that out. That’s my goal at some point in my career, to team up with Kate again. But we’ll see if that happens.”
