Over the past nine months, Clark has played an incredible amount of basketball with very little time for a breather. The 22-year-old guard rolled straight from her record-setting senior season at Iowa into her first WNBA season.
After doing her part in Team WNBA’s win over Team USA in the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game, she’ll have nearly four weeks to rest and recover before WNBA action resumes.
“I honestly can’t wait to not touch a basketball for a while,” Clark, who dished out 10 assists in the All-Star Game, joked after the contest.
In the immediate aftermath of her exclusion from the U.S. Olympic team, she felt “no disappointment” after the snub. And while she won’t go to Paris, the four-week break stretched ahead of her promises its own reward.
Clark will get a well-deserved break from what’s best described as a busy year of playing basketball.
Things have essentially been nonstop for Clark since Oct. 15, the date Iowa opened the 2023-24 season with a historic exhibition game. Eight days after Clark’s senior season ended on April 7, she was drafted first overall by the Fever. Training camp opened 13 days after the draft.
While USA Basketball’s decision to pass on Clark has been viewed as a controversial one, she now has an opportunity to take full advantage of the break. Instead of heading to Europe to begin the Olympic competition in a week, Clark won’t play another meaningful game until Aug. 16.
Clark expressed her excitement for “rest and relaxation” again in a social media post after the All-Star Game.
Despite the perceived controversy around Team USA’s roster choices, Clark was both proud of her role in helping the national team prepare and adamant in her support of the program, which is seeking an eighth consecutive gold medal.
“From my standpoint, this is a great opportunity to help prepare them for Paris,” Clark said after the All-Star Game. “I’m gonna be supporting them and cheering them on and I love the Olympics. I’ve loved the Olympics ever since I was a young kid.
“They’re gonna be just fine — they’re gonna win gold and dominate, so I’m not worried.”
At 22, Clark’s fandom of her peers is still evident. This may be the last time she’ll be idle during the Olympics for a while.
Through her first 26 WNBA games, Clark is averaging 17.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and a league-leading 8.2 assists per game while logging the second-most minutes among all players in the 2024 season.
If Clark could put forth those types of numbers after the quick turnaround from her senior season at Iowa, the league could be in for an even scarier version of the rookie coming off a month-long break.
WNBA fans should be excited for what’s to come from Clark as her career continues.
