Caitlin Clark unanimously won the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year award on Sunday for her stellar season that saw her break the league’s single-season assist record with 337, as well as the rookie record for scoring (769 points), while leading the Fever to the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
In light of her record-setting season, Clark also received the fourth-most votes (130 points) for the MVP award, finishing behind only winner A’ja Wilson (670 points), Napheesa Collier (467 points) and Breanna Stewart (295 points) in the final ballot. In fact, Clark finished third in third-place votes behind Wilson and Stewart to become the youngest rookie to finish top-5 in MVP voting since Candace Parker in 2008.
Clark, however, downplayed her impressive achievement of receiving several MVP votes as a rookie. Ahead of the Fever’s first-round playoff game against the Sun on Sunday, the star guard said her focus was on the postseason, not on individual accolades or awards.
“I mean, it’s cool, but at the same time, I don’t really care,” Clark told reporters, via Matthew Byrne of ClutchPoints. “My life is very unaffected by that. I’m just going to try to go out there and help my team. Obviously, our goal is to get to the playoffs, but I have a belief that we can come in here and we can win this series [against the Sun] … I think that’s where my focus is. It’s pretty night and day from where we first started. I feel like that’s a lot and something to be proud of and to find confidence in.”
Clark’s point about the Fever being “night and day” away in September 2024 compared to the start of the season is true. Indiana started the season 1-8 and seemed destined to miss the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season. That was until Clark and Kelsey Mitchell led a midseason turnaround that began shortly before the Olympic break and continued well into the end of the regular season.
Unfortunately for the Fever, the late-season momentum didn’t help in their 93-69 loss to the Sun on Sunday in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs. The Fever will look to bounce back in a must-win situation on Wednesday to try and force a Game 3 back in Indiana.
