Caitlin Clark Just Set Her Most Impressive Record Yet. Her Response Is a Lesson for Every Leader
Clark now holds the single-game record for assists. It's a sign of her leadership mentality.
On Wednesday, Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever played the Dallas Wings in the final game before the WNBA takes a month off for the Summer Olympics. The game didn’t turn out exactly as Clark’s team would have wanted–they lost 101-93. The real story, however, was that Clark had 19 assists, breaking a 24-year-old WNBA record.
Clark has set a lot of records this season, but this might be one of the most impressive. She was already the first rookie to ever have a least 400 points and 200 assists. She’s also on track to set the single-season record in her first season.
Clark was, as you might expect, asked about her performance after the game. Before answering, Clark paused. She seems to have been reflecting on a turnover in the last minute of the game when the Fever was down by four points.
Clark has faced criticism all season long that she is too quick to pass, often leading to turnovers. In fact, she’s earned another record, though probably not one she’d like to own–most turnovers in a season by any player, rookie or otherwise. The stat is questionable, however. There are a number of times Clark made a pass to a teammate that the receiver couldn’t handle, and they got marked down as a turnover. Besides, Clark is in good company: LeBron James holds the all-time record for turnovers in the NBA.
While Clark took a breath before answering, her teammate jumped in. “She’s going to say it means nothing, but I think it’s pretty cool,” Aliyah Boston interjected before Clark could answer. For what it’s worth, Boston was the unanimous pick for Rookie of the Year last year. She has some experience as to what it means to have a great debut season.
She’s also right–it is pretty cool, and it’s definitely not nothing. It’s a testament to Clark’s competitive mentality, which is that the success of the team comes first.
“I just try to set my teammates up for success,” Clark said. “I think at times I can almost overpass. There probably could have been a few times were instead of passing that leads to a turnover I may have, I can probably shoot the ball. Especially with (Boston). I’m just looking to set her up so much. My eyes are almost always on our post-players.”
There’s such a great lesson in that response
There’s no question that, even as a rookie, Clark is a leader on her team. She is the most recognizable name in all of women’s basketball due in no small part to her incredible run at Iowa where she set the all-time scoring record for women and men. Even after Clark’s Hawkeyes came up short in the National Championship, the winning coach, Dawn Staley from South Carolina, said she wanted to “personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport,” adding that when she got to the WNBA she would “lift that league up as well.”
And Clark has. Everywhere she plays, record crowds follow, which is good for everyone and the sport as a whole. So is her willingness to set up her teammates for success. That might be the most important lesson of all. Clark is a prodigious scorer, but her most valuable contribution to her team is–without a doubt–her willingness to make her teammates better and put them in a position to score. Clark understands that even if people show up to watch her play, her success isn’t hers alone, but that of her team.
That’s a lesson every leader could learn from that it’s worth repeating. “I just try to set my teammates up for success,” she said. I suspect a lot of teams would get better if the leader had that kind of mindset and commitment to their teammates.
