I’ve been playing basketball for a year straight. It’s not an easy thing to just show up to and shoot off of a rack. It’s not something I’ve ever done before,” Clark explained why she didn’t participate in the 3-point contest.
“It’s not something I’ve had a lot of time to practice. I’ve been focusing on helping my team win games, so I think just enjoying this break, I think there’s going to be plenty of opportunities for me to do that at some point, but at the same time, like the field of shooters that we have in the competition are really good. They’re all like near 40% shooters, so I’m excited for them.”
While Clark has dreamt of representing at the Olympics, she’s not a member of the 2024 Paris squad. For the time being, she’s making the most of her “very beneficial” four-week break. Even though she’s taking “some time to breathe” she’s also planning on squeezing in some workouts. For a professional player of her stature, not touching the basketball for a week may be a bit uncomfortable, but she acknowledges that it’s “ going to be the healthiest thing for myself, and I think just relax, like, turn my phone off, get away from everything and really enjoy it because, obviously, this past year has been super crazy.”
The WNBA rookie standouts clashed against each other in the 2023 Women’s NCAA tournament national championship game. Back then, Clark was at Iowa and Reese at LSU. As for their big league plays against each other, they’ve already stepped out with their respective teams thrice in the first half of the WNBA season.
Beyond the “rivalry” narrative that has seemingly set in stone in the media around the duo, Clark has ardently expressed that the kind of attention she and Reese are attracting to women’s basketball will go a long way in bolstering the game’s foundation and exposure.