Outside of the Fever, she works as an NBA and college basketball commentator for ESPN, covering both men’s and women’s games. She recently spoke with me in-depth on the Sports Media Podcast about her twin responsibilities as the Fever’s coach and broadcaster.
Caitlin Clark is obviously more than simply an All-Star athlete. She is among the most well-known basketball players in the nation, regardless of gender, and the most well-known women’s basketball player in America. How do you handle the circus that will be surrounding her—and I don’t mean this in a negative way?
She does a fantastic job of handling everything, in my opinion. She’s so modest, you know. She has a broad perspective. Therefore, she sees it as a way to comprehend her fame, No. 1. However, No. 2 is who she is—a Midwest person and a Midwest kid. She makes an effort to lead a genuine life. She’s Taylor Swift 2.0, though.
How can we assist her in navigating all of this, in my opinion, as well as that of our employees and franchise? How can we assist her in keeping her peace? so there may be a lot of it. What can we do to help her? With social media and fan interaction, it’s at a new level. Our goal is to provide as a resource and aid in her protection.
She is an amazing child. She is clearly a young woman, yet I refer to her as a kid. An amazing gift. She is a wonderful person. She puts in a lot of work. She is a certain kind of player for a reason. Most 23-year-olds wouldn’t be able to manage all of this with the elegance and composure she has.
How about from the standpoint of coaching?
When it comes to coaching, the most important item should always come first. After assisting her in preserving her tranquility, support her while she develops on the basketball court. We communicate to our players that sometimes it’s necessary to tune out the outside noise and concentrate on our work. It’s our responsibility to put the greatest team and product on the floor that we can.
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I am really pleased with our front office and management, especially with COO Amber (Cox) and general manager Kelly (Krauskopf). They’ve performed admirably in free agency. As coaches, we’ll keep communicating in an open and honest manner. The elephants in the room will be addressed. It is going to be crucial to communicate.
As an ESPN on-air personality, you have not only attained a destination position for sports broadcasters, but you are coaching at the top levels of your sport. In what ways do the various jobs complement one another?
Both the audience and my teams benefit from them, I hope. As coaches, it’s common for us to become quite engrossed in the details of our daily lives. You get a really macro perspective as a broadcaster. As coaches, we are frequently overly preoccupied with what our players are incapable of. As broadcasters, our attention is constantly on the abilities of the players. That, in my opinion, makes me a better coach and, ideally, a better broadcaster.
What drew you to broadcasting?
I was fortunate. Broadcast journalism was not a subject I studied in college. I spent two years learning about aviation. I attended Purdue in part because of it. I switched to general communications after that. As an assistant coach with the Chicago Sky, I was residing in Chicago at the time. Eric Collins, a broadcaster who was calling games for the Sky, introduced me to Tim Sutton and Leon Schweir, two executives at the Big Ten Network, which was establishing itself in Chicago. I had a brief audition and had the opportunity to speak with them. We’ll give you five or six games to see how you do, they stated. That first year, five or six games became fifty events. Since then, I’ve continued to do it.
According to the oddsmakers, the Fever are now regarded as one of the top four teams to win the WNBA championship. Does this club have a chance to win a championship in 2025?
On paper, of course, I believe. Bringing in guys who could support our big three was our aim. I was surprised to learn that we could achieve the depth we accomplished in Year 1.
Every player we brought in, in my opinion, greatly enhances what we already have. They know what it takes to assemble a team capable of winning a title. As coaches, it is our responsibility to foster synergy rapidly. We need to determine which groups work well together. We must figure out how to make our team and each player as effective as possible throughout the course of 44 games and four quarters.
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There is no Olympic break, and we have four more games in the same time frame as we did a year ago. We must have the ability to rotate. We were unable to locate a rotation in Connecticut for two years. Our starters had to put in a lot of hours. We became less efficient in the fourth quarter and throughout the season, so I believe you could see that a little bit at times.
In order to be effective, we must arrange our many excellent attacking weapons here. However, we must improve our defensive performance.
Do I believe we can challenge for the title? Of course. Do I believe that everything will fall into place in May? No, it will require time. Staying healthy and reaching your peak at the correct moment usually involves a certain amount of luck. The athletes we brought that suit our locker room have me giddy with anticipation. They recognize the value of making sacrifices for one another in order to improve the team. Their pedigree is championship-caliber.
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