Since coming into the WNBA, Caitlin Clark has admitted that she has been battered and bruised by the competition. Perhaps the most infamous of these is the foul committed on her by Chennedy Carter during the Jun. 1 matchup between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky.
Admittedly, that particular foul was not a typical basketball play, even Clark herself said so. After all, she was blindsided and sent crashing to the floor away from the ball while waiting for an inbound.
However, the number one overall pick isn't holding anything against Carter.
"Basketball is competitive, I get it," Clark said to the media. "Sometimes your emotions get the best of you, happened to me multiple times throughout the course of my career. People are competitive it is what it is."
She then proceeded to give props to Carter for the tremendous work she's been doing for the Sky, especially in her role as a spark plug off the bench. Afterward, Clark also said that her focus lies on her team and how she can improve.
"It's just basketball at the end of the day," Clark added. "There's no grudges, there's nothing like that. It's a sport, it's competitive. It's not gonna be nice all the time, that's not what basketball is and I think people that play at the highest level understand that."
The foul that Chennedy Carter performed on Caitlin Clark was initially called a common foul by the officiating crew but was later deemed by the league as a flagrant one.
How did Caitlin Clark respond to Chennedy Carter's hard foul?
Caitlin Clark kept her composure by not retaliating against Chennedy Carter after being bodied by her during the Sky vs Fever matchup but she did talk about it after it happened.
First, she was asked about it between the third and the fourth quarter of the game. She said in that interview that while Carter's foul was not a basketball play, it's simply something that happens in basketball and is something she has to play through.
The same play was brought up in the post-game press conference of that game. Clark's admitted that the play was unexpected but her sentiments towards it did not change.
She also added that in such situations, she'd rather let her play do the talking for her. She once again reiterated that incidents like these are sometimes just a part of playing the game.
Caitlin Clark also reminded everyone that in such situations, it's usually the player who retaliates and gets in trouble with the officials. While still in her rookie season, Clark is already getting used to the physicality in the pros.