Former Baylor star and Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner expects WNBA No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark to experience “growing pains” during her first season with the Indiana Fever and believes her scoring prowess will diminish a bit as a rookie before she settles in. Griner’s prediction was similar to Diana Taurasi’s criticism, who sparked sparked reaction last month after she gave Clark a blunt warning before the WNBA Draft.
“It’s different, when you come from college to the pros,” Griner said this week ahead of Clark’s regular-season debut. “I went from top dog to my numbers going down a bit. You’re going up against grown women. This is how they feed their families. This is not just for the love of the [game]. This is their livelihood. I had to get stronger, lock in a little more. There will be some growing [pains] for her, but she’ll be fine.”
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Griner is also a former No. 1 overall pick after winning the 2012 national championship at Baylor under then-coach Kim Mulkey. She’s a nine-time WNBA All-Star.
Clark, who dazzled in her preseason debut with 21 points in 28 minutes, hit five 3-pointers and had several nifty assists, leading Taurasi to walk back previous comments a bit.
“My biggest goal coming into tonight was continue to be myself, have fun playing basketball, be aggressive,” Clark said in her post-game availability. “I thought that’s what I did. A lot to be proud of.”
Taurasi, a former UConn star and three-time national champion, previously said Clark was going to face “grown women” at the next level and challenged her ability to dominate.
“Reality is coming,” Taurasi told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt during Iowa’s NCAA Tournament run. “There’s levels to this thing. That’s just life. We all went through it. You see it on the NBA side, and you’re going to see it on this side. You look superhuman playing against some 18-year-olds, but you’re going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time.
“Not saying it’s not going to translate, because when you’re great at what you do you’re just going to get better, but there is going to be a transition period when you have to give some grace as a rookie. It may take a little bit longer for some people.”
Clark took the comments in stride and will likely do the same after Griner’s prediction for her first season.
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“When you’re on the court with this much talent, you can’t take a second off,” Clark said after her debut. “You relax for one second, and they’re going to beat you on a screen. They’re going to beat you on whatever it is. I think that’s the biggest thing, is you cannot relax in this league for one second. So I think getting used to that, just playing hard every single second.”