According to WNBA analyst Caroline Fenton, after Clark delivered the historic 45-point, 10-assist masterpiece against the Seattle Storm on July 17, there was finally a moment of focus solely on her brilliance on the court. Since the June 24 flagrant foul incident involving Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas, almost every conversation around Clark has centered on hard contacts, protecting players, and athletes facing online harassment. For Fenton, her performance against the Storm has finally shifted that narrative.
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“It’s always great to see any player kind of break through, break a slump, or have a massive night like that. Especially when it’s somebody that commands so much attention like Caitlin Clark,” Fenton said on Monday’s episode of the Yahoo Sports Daily podcast.
“Frankly, as somebody who covers the WNBA, no matter what Caitlin Clark does, there’s a conversation, there’s a controversy. She’s used as a political scapegoat for somebody to force their agenda one way or another. It’s exhausting. Nobody asked for it. Caitlin Clark didn’t ask for it. So when we have a night that we can just talk about Caitlin Clark’s basketball, when we can just talk about the sport of it and not the politics of it all, I’ll enjoy it and I’ll relish in it.”
With that performance, Caitlin Clark became the first player in WNBA history to record a 40-point and 10-assist game. She set a new Indiana Fever single-game franchise record. She became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 200 career three-pointers. And overall, she guided the Indiana Fever to a thrilling 110-107 comeback victory over the Storm.
The most remarkable part of the performance was that Clark did all of that in just 29 minutes. She had been operating under a strict minutes restriction for multiple games following the game against the Phoenix Mercury, where Alyssa Thomas’ hard contact to her throat sparked this wave of controversy
That incident was the flashpoint that set off everything that followed. It sparked discussions around discrimination. It generated a wave of controversy and commentary that even attracted the attention of members of Congress, 11 of whom sent an official letter to the WNBA demanding accountability.
However, since Clark’s return to the court after getting injured in that same game against the Mercury, she has also become the fastest WNBA player to reach 600 assists. Fenton hopes that with performances like these, the conversation around Clark will return to being about what she does on the court.