Caitlin Clark held her final media session of the season Thursday and said she has talked with Kelsey Mitchell since her backcourt mate spoke about online hate she has received and the difficulty of playing with the Indiana Fever at times. The intense attention the organization has gotten since Clark joined has attracted a vocal group that has been abusive to Fever players and others around the league.
"Showing up every day to compete for fans that may or may not like you is hard," Mitchell said Saturday during her season-ending media session. Clark said it "makes you upset" to see what her teammate has gone through, calling Mitchell a "good soul." Clark denounced anyone who would spew abuse in her name, saying, "As far as people that have used me to demonstrate racist rhetoric or hate or discrimination, that's not something I stand for." She also said she appreciates the genuine fans who have supported her, the team and the organization.
Retaining Kelsey Mitchell, an unrestricted free agent who set the WNBA single-season scoring record, is the Fever's top priority. Mitchell has played all nine seasons with Indiana since being the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft. Clark said, "There's nobody I would want to share the backcourt with other than her," and that the organization and every player under contract will recruit her as hard as they can.
Mitchell is not the first player to voice frustration with fans. A'ja Wilson of the Aces got into an altercation with a fan during Game 2 of the postseason opening round, and Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas said she received death threats and racial slurs after a one-game suspension. General manager Amber Cox said last week that "the attacks on our fanbases have no basis in reality," a claim former Fever player Brianna Turner called "an unequivocally false statement."
Clark said she has largely stopped checking her direct messages to block out the noise. "I've been under this microscope with the lights bright for six years now," she said. "That doesn't mean everything's easy for me."
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing