Fever President Breaks Down Why Caitlin Clark Passed More and Took Less Shots at the Beginning of Her Rookie Season

Caitlin Clark has won the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year race after a historic season. However, she was seen passing the ball excessively in the initial stages of her rookie year, even passing up on ripe scoring opportunities. Indiana Fever President, Allison Barber, explained the real reason why the 22-year-old did this early on.

Barber sat down with The Economic Club to discuss the historic shift in the WNBA that the Fever is leading. During the interview, she explained that Clark was looking to build team camaraderie at the start of the season by passing it more to her teammates.

Barber explained,

“Sometimes we wish she [Clark] would pass less, and shoot more. She’s an amazing passer, a wonderful shooter. But what she was building, was team camaraderie, of passing the ball, helping other people play a better game.”

“And sometimes to the detriment of our own scores. Now, we’ve figured that rhythm out.”

Reason why CC was passing more and taking less shots in the beginning of the season. She envisioned bigger picture and how she helped fever to become so better.

A MVP for the franchise.
Sides role and Fever goal
Commit, Compete and Contribute pic.twitter.com/2JTGrkw43F

— Hoop22 (@FeverHoop22) September 29, 2024

It is admirable that Clark wanted to promote team chemistry at the expense of her scoring. However, things looked far from pretty in the early parts of the season.

The roster was completely out of sync. Players kept losing the ball, which made CC’s passing look bad. This was a big reason behind Clark’s 139 turnovers with 15 games still to go in the regular season. This was one more than the previous record for total turnovers in a season.

Fortunately, the team did figure it out. Indiana even managed to enter the postseason as the sixth seed. However, the team was swept by the Connecticut Sun in the first round of the WNBA Playoffs.

But they will now be looking ahead to next season with high expectations, especially after the reception they have experienced this season.

Barber reveals Clark wants to get people paid

During the same interview, Allison Barber revealed that Clark looked to get opposing players bonuses during road games. She said,

“When we [The Indiana Fever] would go to away games, they always sold out… After a few away games and all of the sell outs, Caitlin asked the WNBA if they would pay spot bonuses to the away team players.”

“She said, ‘We’re making all this new revenue. And I would would like the away team to benefit from that. Could they get a spot bonus?’ So that’s the heart of Caitlin Clark!”

Heart of Caitlin Clark ❤️

She advocated for away team players to get spot bonuses and she never brought it up or tried to take credit for that.

Also listen till the end how impactful she is and what brands say about her.

Thank you @CaitlinClark22 pic.twitter.com/MO9qospp2J

— Hoop22 (@FeverHoop22) September 28, 2024

Unfortunately, the WNBA was unable to grant this due to the players’ set bargaining agreement. But this anecdote reveals Clark’s generous character. And perhaps due to it, she will have far more friends than enemies going into next season.