Caitlin Clark admitted she was a bit nervous earlier than being chosen with the No. 1 choose within the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever, although it was no shock.
“I dreamed of this second since I used to be in second grade, and it’s taken quite a lot of onerous work, quite a lot of ups and downs, however greater than something, simply attempting to soak it in,” Clark stated.
The previous Iowa star grew to become a family title amongst basketball followers throughout her record-breaking school profession, and she’s going to now attempt to assist revive the Indiana franchise together with final season’s No. 1 choose, Aliyah Boston.
“The group has among the finest put up gamers in all the world. My level guard eyes mild up with that,” she stated.
The Fever taking Clark had been a foregone conclusion since she introduced on Feb. 29 she would flip professional. Almost 17,000 tickets had been claimed to look at the draft at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, residence to the Fever and the NBA’s Indiana Pacers.
Clark has helped convey hundreds of thousands of followers to the ladies’s recreation together with her signature photographs from the midcourt emblem and passing capability. The NCAA’s all-time scoring chief was an enormous purpose why a file 18.9 million viewers tuned in to the nationwide championship recreation, which Iowa misplaced to unbeaten South Carolina. The Hawkeyes had been additionally the nationwide runners-up to LSU a yr earlier.
Clark, who wore a white Prada jacket and skirt, hugged her mother and father and brothers and Iowa coach Lisa Bluder after she was drafted.
The draft was held on the Brooklyn Academy of Music in entrance of 1,000 followers, who purchased all of the tickets inside quarter-hour of them happening sale just a few months in the past.
Aaliyah Edwards of Kingston, Ont., was picked sixth general by the Washington Mystic.
The 21-year-old Edwards was projected to be a first-round choose after a four-year profession at UConn the place she was a two-time all-American. Edwards was coming off a senior season through which she averaged profession highs of 17.6 factors and 9.2 rebounds because the Huskies made it to the Ultimate 4 within the NCAA girls’s basketball match.
The six-foot-three ahead broke out in her junior season, averaging 16.6 factors and 9 rebounds per recreation and being a staple of the workforce’s success because the Huskies handled accidents. She earned AP third-team all-America honours, whereas additionally being named all-Huge East first workforce, Huge East most improved participant and Huge East Event most excellent participant in 2022-23.
Los Angeles selected Stanford’s Cameron Brink at No. 2. She’ll get to remain in California and can give the Sparks a two-way participant. The prolific scorer was additionally the Naismith Defensive Participant of the Yr. The Sparks wanted to exchange franchise participant Nneka Ogwumike, who left for Seattle in free company.
Chicago had the third choose and selected South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso earlier than the Sparks had been on the clock once more and and chosen Tennessee’s Rickea Jackson.
Dallas took Ohio State guard Jacy Sheldon with the fifth choose.
The WNBA invited 15 gamers to the draft, together with together with Clark, Brink, Jackson and Cardoso. The others had been Angel Reese of LSU; Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech; Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Muhl of UConn; Charisma Osborne of UCLA; Celeste Taylor and Sheldon of Ohio State; Alissa Pili of Utah; Marquesha Davis of Mississippi; Dyaisha Honest of Syracuse; and Nyadiew Puoch, an Australian who didn’t play school basketball within the U.S.
