Caitlin Clark directly responded to Kelsey Mitchell’s controversial exit interview in a press conference on Thursday (Oct. 8) at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Clark is understanding and accepting of Mitchell’s position while appearing somewhat disappointed that Mitchell didn’t at least discuss any of this with her.
During an exit interview that fueled all sorts of speculation on social media, Mitchell hinted that she could be pursuing another location to bring her amazing ball skills to as she enters the first unrestricted free agency of her career. That would mean leaving Clark and breaking up the most prolific scoring backcourt in WNBA history.
Mitchell’s comments included her referencing how hard it was to be a teammate of Clark with a passionate and aggressive fan base that has often turned on its own players at the blink of an eye. Mitchell says she has to be “selfish” in carefully choosing her next destination.
“It makes you upset because you care about your teammates so much and you don’t want them to go through anything like that,” Clark said.
Fans have criticized Clark for staying neutral on controversial, racial or politically-infused conversation that doesn’t have to do with basketball. Clark also made a clear and direct statement condemning any form of racism or hate speech that has been directed towards players by fans on her behalf.
“As far as people that have used me to demonstrate racist rhetoric or hate or discrimination, that’s not something I stand for. … it’s never been something I’ve stood for,” Clark said. “That’s not what I’m about and not how I was raised and it’s really disappointing when people do that. … Recently I kind of saw that Coco Gauf came out and talked about her experience as well.”
Clark expressed all of the sympathy she could for other people’s actions. She could condemn all of these things, but that just makes her fan base love her more and ramp up all of the rhetoric and hate speech on social media to another level. Clark might try to regain her own identity, but it’s already been hijacked and repurposed as a symbol of a new WNBA battling against the gatekeepers who want the benefit of Clark’s popularity but refuse to give her the respect her fan base feel she’s earned. Constant drama.
“Obviously there is such a microscope on me and that kind of comes with everybody else that I’ve been teammates with whether that was my time at Iowa or my time here, and it comes with a lot of really great things. And at the same time, there can be some negatives,” Clark mentioned.
WNBA Reporter Says Clark Gave People What they Want, Now Lay Off!
WNBA reporter Jaime Lardis highlighted Clark denouncing racism and hoped that this will put an end to people accusing her of avoiding the issue and refusing to scold her fans for being overzealous.
“Caitlin Clark called out racism. So y’all can stop with the ‘she never speaks up about racism’ narrative. She just did exactly what you’ve been asking her to do: use her platform to speak out against it. You can’t say she never speaks up anymore. Now let’s move on,” Lardis captiond on X above a video of Clark’s presser.
Kelsey Mitchell didn’t do anything to dampen the fire that is constantly burning around everything Indiana Fever-related with her comments during her exit interview.
Mitchell revealed how hard it is to be Clark’s teammate, simply for being associated with her. “Playing with CeCe [Clark] and having the eyes that she got… we get a lot of flak just for being on her team.“
She also highlighted the hostility she faces privately, noting, “If I showed y’all my DMs about the hate, and all of the stuff that comes with being a professional athlete—but specifically being an Indiana Fever basketball player—it’s a lot that goes into that.”
Mitchell also may want to try another fan base, as the one in Indiana has changed dramatically since the early days of her nine-year tenure. She expressed how draining it is to perform in front of crowds that don’t appreciate any player other than Clark.
“Showing up every day to compete for fans that may or may not like you is hard,” Mitchell said in her exit interview on Oct.3. “I don’t think people understand that. I think having to show up for people that you know don’t look at you and have the star eyes when they see me… when it comes to really trying to be yourself, it hasn’t always been easy.“
Basically she’s saying Clark’s star is too bright to get any light and her ego is bruised.
With rumors that head coach Stephanie White might be out of the door and Clark having to make public statements against racism while making a plea for Mitchell to phone home, the Fever have a lot of work to do this offseason.
