Sunday represented the highly anticipated generational showdown between Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever and Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury. Taurasi is the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer and has as good a claim to the GOAT title as anyone in women’s basketball. Clark is arguably the biggest star the sport has ever had and is someday likely to be part of that discussion.
But the Taurasi-Clark matchup was given a bit of extra juice this offseason as Taurasi and other WNBA vets made it clear that Clark would not waltz into the league and take it over on Day 1.
In an interview with Scott Van Pelt to promote her ESPN altcast for the Women’s Final Four with former UConn teammate Sue Bird, Taurasi sent out a warning signal to Clark and the other high profile rookies entering the W that “reality is coming” when transitioning from the college to the pro game.
And while Caitlin Clark has been on the receiving end of many “welcome to the WNBA” moments in her rookie season, she got the last laugh over Taurasi on Sunday. Clark and the Fever scored their first victory over a team with a winning record as they won on the road 88-82 over the Mercury.
And naturally, the Fever circled all the way back to Taurasi’s comments back in April with two simple words to promote the win – “reality check.”
As far as the individual duel, Caitlin Clark almost had a triple double with 15 points, 12 assists, and 9 rebounds. Diana Taurasi had 19 points, but shot just 2-10 from three. The Fever have won 5 of 7 and are now 8-12 on the season while the Mercury sit at 9-9.
After the game, Taurasi praised Clark, saying, “So her future is super bright, and being a veteran and being in this league for a long, long time, it is pretty cool to see that and go into the future.”