During Saturday night’s All-Star Game in Phoenix, Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark made history, to no surprise. Clark recorded 10 assists, setting the rookie record in an All-Star Game, as Team WNBA beat the Team USA Olympians, 117-109. Clark played the fourth-most minutes.
But while resting in the third quarter, Clark conducted an in-game interview with the broadcast crew. So, Ryan Ruocco asked Clark if she would like to know the overall assist record in an All-Star Game, not just among rookies. When Ruocco said it’s Sue Bird with 11, Clark replied that just because it was Sue, she had to break it. Anyone else, and she’d let them hold onto it.
At that point in time, Clark had nine assists, two shy of matching the record.
“It’s Sue’s?” Clark said on TV. “Then I’m breaking it. Sue’s been talking crap all game.”
Bird — the 14-time All-Star and four-time WNBA champion — was in attendance courtside. But after the All-Star win, Clark doubled back in the postgame press conference.
“That’s Sue’s record,” Clark said. “I can’t take that from her. That’s my homie.”
Clark had one assist in the fourth quarter, to Angel Reese. So Bird got to keep the record.
Obviously, Caitlin Clark made history for what feels like the millionth time. In the Fever’s final game in the regular season before this All-Star and Olympic Break — last Wednesday — Clark set the overall WNBA single-game assist record with 19. Saturday night in Phoenix, the assists kept pouring in. Clark wasn’t able to find any consistency beyond the arc though, shooting 0-for-7.
It didn’t matter. Arike Ogunbowale, the MVP with 34 points, sank eight threes for Team WNBA. When Team WNBA went on their 9-2 run to kick off the third quarter — and pull ahead of the Olympians 61-56 — Clark assisted three of the four baskets. Ogunbowale made two of them.
Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston, both making their second-career All-Star appearances with the Fever, were also slotted on Team WNBA beside Clark. Mitchell was relatively faint in the first half but caught fire in the third quarter. She made all four shots in the last four minutes and beat the buzzer, too. It sustained the run Clark helped build and propelled Team WNBA into the last.
Boston played the third-fewest minutes on her team, but both of her baskets were assisted by Clark. Actually during the first quarter, Clark looked like her shakier self in the beginning of the season. How could she not? Clark directed an offense with four starters that were previous foes. Boston scored on Clark’s pass within 10 seconds of getting into the game in the second quarter.
“You can still just see our connection,” Clark said. “Even though we’re not with the whole Fever team.”
Saturday night in Phoenix was the second time the event featured Team WNBA versus Team USA. Both All-Star teams last battled in July 2021, leading up to the Tokyo Olympics. And the WNBA All-Stars beat USA 93-85. Ogunbowale was the MVP, too. The United States did not lose in Tokyo en route to the gold. They will be going for their eighth-consecutive in Paris this month.
Although the announcement of who made the Olympic roster is obviously old news, Clark was asked Saturday if Team WNBA winning is any vindication to the 12 players who weren’t chosen to go to Paris. The Fever rookie didn’t think so and basically put the whole thing to rest for good.
“Um, no,” Clark said. “They’re really good. They have plenty of talent on that team… four years prior I’m pretty sure Team WNBA beat Team USA. They were perfectly fine in the Olympics,” she said in reasoned tone. “I think if anything, it shows how good this league is… they could’ve picked any combination of 12 players and probably been really, really successful.”
“I’m going to be supporting them and cheering them on,” Clark added. “They’re going to win gold.”
And now after All-Star festivities, the Olympic Break has truly begun for most of the league.
