NBA All-Star Speaks Out On Pressure Caitlin Clark Faces

10/01/2024 02:37 PM

Few athletes have been tasked with performing in the kind of spotlight Caitlin Clark has had to dating back to her days at Iowa.

At 22-years-old the WNBA's No. 1 pick has become the face of women's sports, deals with almost unparalleled media scrutiny and now has to answer for fans of hers who are more interested in what she does for their skewed narratives rather than her talents as a basketball player.

Pacers All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton says he's grown a friendship with Clark since her arrival in Indiana and understands the unnecessary pressure faces every day.

"I grew pretty close with Connor McCaffery being an intern with [the Pacers] last year and I've grown to be pretty close with Caitlin and him," Haliburton said at Pacers Media Day. "Me, her, him and my girlfriend Jade all have a group chat that we talk in pretty often about everything."

"So it's been cool to just grow a friendship with her," he continued. "I don't want to be — everybody just wants to like get more from her, take more from her, get more answers to things and I don't want to be that. We're friends and I think that that's a cool part if she wants to talk basketball, we'll talk basketball. If not, I'm totally fine with that as well. But I think we've grown a pretty cool friendship alongside Connor."

Haliburton added that he's been impressed by how far the Fever have come in such a short amount of time.

"It's been really cool to see her growth this last year and the Fever as a whole," he said. "To see Kelsey [Mitchell] get some playoff experience, the whole group, Aliyah [Boston] … They're a young group, they'll be back for success.

"Now, I'm locked in to watching more WNBA."

Related: Caitlin Clark Says Her Signature 'Rookie Moment' Was A Painful One