This has been a WNBA season full of fits and starts for Caitlin Clark. The second-year sensation has spent more time watching her Indiana Fever from the sideline than she has actually helping them on the court, playing only 13 of 29 games. Despite that, the Fever are well-positioned for the playoffs thanks to a recent five-game win streak.
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No timetable has been set for Clark’s return from her latest groin injury, a frustrating development not only for her team but for the legions of fans that have flocked to the WNBA in large part because of her presence. With just 13 games to go until the playoffs, the clock is ticking to get her back and in playing shape.
When Clark has played this season, she hasn’t been at her best. Her shooting numbers, especially from 3-point range, have been brutal and she hasn’t yet gotten the turnover issues from her rookie season under control. Still, Indiana fans have to feel like they have a real shot at a title if she can come back healthy, because the team has looked outstanding lately.
Clark has missed large chunks of time on three separate occasions this season. The first was from a strained left quad in May, then the other two were from a strained groin — the left in late June, then the right, which she’s currently dealing with.
On the latest episode of his podcast, Skip Bayless gave an alternative explanation for why Clark has missed so much time. In keeping with Skip tradition, it’s as inane as ever.
“I have wondered out loud if maybe Caitlin Clark has taken a couple of injury breaks just because she needed a mental break from all the jealousy, all the resentment, all the on-court bullying and cheap shots she takes,” Skip said. “All of which might have just overwhelmed her and helped send her into a shooting slump.”
Find someone that loves you as much as Skip loves a conspiracy theory. The problem is, this isn’t even a good one. Skip purports to be one of Clark’s biggest fans, even saying that he tunes into Fever games she’s not playing in just to see her reactions from the bench but this is unforgivably patronising.
To say that Clark is missing all this time as some kind of covert mental health break is insulting to her competitive spirit. Sure she’s struggled when she’s been able to play this season, but let’s use Occam’s Razor to get to the root of the problem. Isn’t it much more likely that she hasn’t played well this season because she hasn’t been healthy?
Furthermore, you can trace a direct line from each of Clark’s injuries to explain why she’s missed so much time. Soft tissue injuries are notoriously slow to heal. Clark strained her left quad, then after returning for five games, missed more time with a left groin strain. You don’t need to be a doctor to understand how those two injuries could be related.
When dealing with an injury, it’s natural to compensate and put too much strain on the other side. Voila, right groin strain. The Fever are being smart by holding Clark out until she’s fully healthy this time, especially as they’ve played so well to solidify their playoff position in her absence, but even that made Skip’s tinfoil hat vibrate.
“Is it possible that this time she tore her groin so badly that she’s already been privately ruled out for the rest of the season, yet the league wants to keep the media and the fans in the dark about this so that people keep tuning in, figuring, ‘Oh, she’ll be back soon.’ Is that what’s going on? Maybe,” Bayless bloviated.
That kind of cover-up would be an enormous scandal if it were true that would undo all the progress the league has made. And besides, Clark has been ruled out well before each game has tipped, so it’s not like the WNBA is fooling people into tuning in only to find out that she’s not in the lineup.
Just to recap, in the span of a few minutes, Skip wondered aloud if Clark is so hurt that she’s been ruled out for the season, then claimed that maybe she’s fine physically and just wants a mental break. One would imagine Bayless would hit the right note at some point but he remains exceptional in his ability to conjure unprovable hypotheses.
