Caitlin Clark heard about Kelsey Mitchell’s jarring comments during her exit interview last Thursday, heard Mitchell talk about the challenges that come with being “a Fever girl,” playing with Clark and all the eyeballs she commands on the basketball floor and in the public sphere. Clark was stunned. She had no idea Mitchell had these feelings, these issues with fans – Internet trolls, for the most part – and as she spoke honestly to the media last week, Mitchell sounded very much like a free agent who had one foot out the door.
“Obviously I saw Kelsey’s comments and as her teammate, it makes you upset because you care about your teammates so much and you don’t want any of them to go through something like that,” Clark said Thursday morning at her exit interview. “…Obviously there’s such a microscope on me and that kind of comes with everybody else that I’ve been teammates with. Whether that was my time at Iowa, whether that’s here, and it comes with a lot of really great things. And then there are times when some of it can be negative.
“I think as far as people that have used me to, you know, demonstrate racist rhetoric or hate or discrimination, that’s not something I stand for. For those of you who know me, it’s never been something I stand for. It’s not what I’m about, not the way I was raised. So that’s really disappointing when people do that. I think it kind of gets into this larger discussion in mainstream sports of what people go through. I recently saw where (tennis star) Coco Gauff came out and talked about her experience as well. So anytime I see something like that, it makes me mad and upset, makes me sad, makes me really disappointed…
“I think for my teammates, there’s a lot of really great things that come with playing here, too. And as far as Kelsey and our future with her with the organization, I think she knows how much I love her…and there’s nobody I would want to share the backcourt with other than her…We’re going to work our butt off to get her back. We’re going to recruit her as hard as we can. We need her, we love her and more than anything, Kelsey’s a really great person and I love getting to be in the locker room with her.”
