Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark wanted just one phrase to explain what representing Crew USA meant to her after her first FIBA Girls’s Basketball World Cup recreation.
“Grateful 💗 @usabasketball,” Clark wrote on Instagram after the US opened the event with a 94-61 victory over China on September 4 in Berlin.
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Clark accompanied the message with a carousel of photographs from her newest look in a USA uniform, together with a portrait of herself seated in her No. 12 jersey with an American flag draped over her shoulders.
The understated publish got here after a a lot louder efficiency on the court docket.
Clark completed with 14 factors and 11 assists with out committing a turnover towards China. She tied Paige Bueckers and Rhyne Howard for the American scoring lead whereas ending as the sport’s main distributor.
For the Fever guard, nonetheless, the importance of the evening prolonged past one field rating.
Caitlin Clark’s Crew USA Second Has Been Years within the Making
Clark’s World Cup look represented one other main step in a national-team journey that has modified considerably over the previous two years.
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She was not chosen for the US roster that gained gold on the 2024 Paris Olympics, a call that grew to become one of many largest speaking factors surrounding that crew. Clark has since labored her means firmly into USA Basketball’s plans.
Her first senior event with this system got here on the World Cup qualifying occasion in San Juan in March.
Clark averaged 11.6 factors and a tournament-best 6.4 assists because the People went 5-0, incomes the event’s TISSOT MVP award. FIBA famous that it was Clark’s first time representing the US since she gained MVP on the 2021 U19 Girls’s Basketball World Cup.
That historical past provides some context to the simplicity of Friday’s Instagram caption.
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Clark didn’t want a prolonged assertion after lastly taking the ground for the US on the senior World Cup. The photographs — notably the American flag draped round her — carried a lot of the message themselves.
Her efficiency did the remainder.
Clark Provides Crew USA One other Strategy to Win
Clark got here off the bench towards China, however her position rapidly grew to become vital.
Her 11 assists had been essentially the most by a U.S. participant in a Girls’s World Cup recreation since Daybreak Staley recorded 12 in 1998, in keeping with Reuters.
Extra necessary for Crew USA going ahead is what these assists represented.
Clark entered the event surrounded by significantly extra scoring expertise than she has on a typical WNBA flooring. Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Grey, Bueckers, Rhyne Howard and Clark are among the many choices accessible to move coach Kara Lawson on a roster constructed to pursue a fifth consecutive World Cup championship.
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That makes Clark’s means to create with out dominating possessions notably invaluable.
The China recreation confirmed she will push tempo, generate open photographs and nonetheless contribute as a scorer whereas enjoying inside a loaded rotation. It additionally continued a pattern from qualifying, the place she led the event in assists.
That ought to be of curiosity in Indiana, too. Clark entered worldwide competitors after establishing herself as one of many WNBA’s most efficient creators, and the World Cup is giving her an opportunity to function alongside elite expertise in a unique offensive surroundings.
What’s Subsequent for Clark and Crew USA
America has larger aims than a powerful opening evening.
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The World Cup runs by September 13 in Berlin, with the People making an attempt to win the event for the fifth consecutive time. Underneath the brand new 16-team format, every group winner advances on to the quarterfinals, whereas the second- and third-place groups should play a further qualification recreation.
Crew USA returns to Group D motion towards Italy on September 6 earlier than going through Czechia on September 7.
Clark’s first World Cup recreation already equipped one indication of how she will match into Lawson’s rotation.
Her Instagram publish supplied one other indication of what the chance means to her.
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After every part surrounding her absence from the Paris Video games and her subsequent rise inside USA Basketball, Clark summed up her first World Cup evening way more merely:
“Grateful.”
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