MINNEAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever traveled to Minnesota to take on the Lynx. This game, however, wasn’t just any regular season matchup.
The Fever are fighting to stay in the playoff race. The Lynx are the best team in their conference. But what happened after the game might be even more important.
The Lynx retired Maya Moore’s jersey. Moore, a six-time All-Star, four-time WNBA champion, and one-time WNBA MVP, is the childhood hero of Caitlin Clark.
Fever fans and Lynx fans packed the Target Center, excited to see the celebration of one needle mover in Moore and the stellar play of another in Clark.
Clark grew up a fan of the Lynx due in part to their location close to her hometown in Des Moines, Iowa, but also due to the play of Maya Moore.
The Minnesota Lynx Head Coach, Cheryl Reeve, discussed the growth of the WNBA in the pregame press conference. She mentioned that the league is starting to age to the point where young women are idolizing WNBA stars.
“We knew the longer the league was around, the more we’d have an opportunity to create younger players that emulate WNBA players.” Reeve said, “Without the league being here for so long, we don’t get Caitlin Clark or Napheesa Collier aspiring to be [Moore].”
At the pregame press conference, Clark recounted a story from her childhood in which her dad bought tickets for Clark to see Moore play in Minnesota, and along with those tickets was a chance to watch the players shoot around. Clark didn’t have a cell phone at the time or a pen to catch an autograph, so she ran away from her dad and hugged Moore.
“There’s no documentation of that moment, but in my brain, it was one of the most pivotal moments of my entire basketball career,” Clark said.
During Clark’s senior season, Moore made an appearance at Carver-Hawkeye Arena before Clark’s senior night celebrations and she surprised Clark outside the locker rooms. Despite playing in front of Moore once before in college, Clark said it was still a surreal experience for her to play in front of Moore in Minnesota.
“She’s courtside, and you look over and it’s like, ‘That’s your childhood hero,'” Clark said in the post-game press conference. “You kind of have to pinch yourself at times.”
Clark was excited to play in front of Moore on the night her jersey was immortalized in the rafters of the Target Center. But she was also excited to be there to root for her idol during Moore’s moment to shine at the end of the night. It was a perfect opportunity for Clark.
After dropping 21 points, eight assists, and five rebounds for the fans in attendance, Clark watched from the tunnels of the Target Center as Moore was enshrined in WNBA history.
“You can’t really script it any better,” Clark said.