This season’s WNBA All-Star Game will go down as one of the most entertaining in league history. Leading Team Spoon to a 129-122 victory over Paige Bueckers and Team Coop, Caitlin Clark lit up the arena with her logo bombs as she finished the night with 17 points. But once the attention shifted to the postgame press conference, the Indiana Fever star found herself discussing her relationship with league leadership, where she made an interesting admission about NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
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“Me and Adam have a great relationship… I know he was here tonight supporting us, so that was great to see,” Clark said when she was asked whether her relationship with league leadership had improved after the new collective bargaining agreement.
“And we can just probably continue to improve in that area. Communication and relationships solve a lot of issues and a lot of problems,” she added.
The NBA commissioner has become an increasingly visible presence around the WNBA as the league continues its rapid growth. Beyond regularly attending marquee events like the All-Star, Silver has also publicly weighed in on several of the league’s biggest storylines this season.
Just last week, he publicly weighed in on the Caitlin Clark-Alyssa Thomas controversy during CNBC and Boardroom’s Game Plan Summit. While he declined to comment on reports that he privately urged Cathy Engelbert to suspend Thomas, Silver claimed Clark had unfairly become “a bit of a political football in this country” while acknowledging that officiating across the WNBA still had room for improvement.
But while talking about her relationship with Silver, Caitlin Clark also made sure to recognize the league’s recent progress under Engelbert as speculation surrounding her future as commissioner continues to grow.
“The WNBA has so much to be proud of. And I feel like we’re always so focused on the negative when we can be focused on the positive. WNBA leadership has created a lot of positives for this league too, and that should be celebrated. And Cathy has also brought a lot to this league and helped us reach new milestones, but there’s always room for improvement,” she added.
For a league to continue growing, having a strong relationship between its leadership and players is essential. And while Caitlin Clark believes there is still room for improvement, her comments showed that she recognizes the progress the WNBA has made and the importance of maintaining that connection moving forward.