One of the downsides of Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark’s somewhat uninhibited passion for the sport is her knack for complaining to game officials. This has long been part of her game, which dates back to her days with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Now that she’s in the pros, Clark has not really been able to move past this heated behavior during games. A testament to this fact is how close she came to suspension after receiving no less than six technical fouls throughout the season. Per league rules, one more tech would have led to an automatic one-game suspension.

This is exactly why her Fever teammates have been working diligently to prevent this from happening. In fact, a Caitlin Clark de-escalation committee came to life with the objective of keeping the rookie sensation’s in-game complaining in check.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark

One of the members of the said committee is veteran guard Erica Wheeler, who spoke honestly about her role in terms of holding Clark back during games.

“I deescalate a lot of things around here, man,” Wheeler said. “… She’s passionate about the game. The ref is the ref. I’m not going to talk about it because I don’t want to get fined.

“I know how she is and I can kinda see when she’s taking it a little further and I’m already standing up and ready to de-escalate it. And she’s allowed me to and I think that’s the most important piece that people don’t realize.”

As Wheeler went on to say, the fact that Clark has allowed Wheeler to help her in these types of heated situations speaks volumes of how much trust and respect Caitlin has for her teammates.

This also says a lot about Clark recognizing a certain area in her game that she might want to improve on. After all, even Caitlin herself will probably be the first to admit that she’s far from perfect.