INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark says she hasn't spoken to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert this week.
But she is ready to add her name to the growing list of players criticizing the league's leadership.
The Indiana Fever guard spoke publicly Thursday for the first time since All-Star weekend and acknowledged Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier made "valid" points when she took her complaints about WNBA executives public.
“I think what people need to understand, we need great leadership in this time, across all levels," Clark said. “This is straight up, the most important moment in this league's history. This league's been around 25 years, and this is a moment we have to capitalize on. Phee said it all with what she said, and I think the points she made were very valid.”
Collier criticized the league's top brass for fining players and coaches who speak out about officiating and other WNBA matters. Her comments came two days after the top-seeded Lynx were eliminated from the playoffs without Collier, who suffered an ankle injury on a no-call play near the end of Game 3, or coach Cheryl Reeve, who was suspended and fined after storming the court and contesting the no-call.
While other players and coaches have joined the chorus, Clark had remained silent until Thursday as she continued to recover from what turned out to be a season-ending right groin injury. Her rehab was complicated by what she called the worst sprained ankle she's ever suffered as she started to practice.
In fact, she's still not 100%. Clark said she hopes to return to playing five-on-five by late October and will spend part of the offseason focusing on USA Basketball responsibilities.
"I think when I get a few years down in my career, this is a moment and a season I’ll look back on and be like, ‘This is why I am who I am today,’” she said. “It’s obviously challenging to think that way right now, but I truly believe that. It was pretty hard sitting on the bench. I’m not going to lie. There were certainly hard days.”
On Tuesday, Collier also recounted a private conversation she said she had with Engelbert in February. Collier said the commissioner told her Clark and other players “should be on their knees” in gratitude for the platform the league has given them. Collier said the commissioner singled out Clark’s endorsement deals, saying she wouldn’t have them if not for the WNBA.
Engelbert released a statement a few hours later in which she said she has the “utmost respect” for Collier but was “disheartened” by how her conversations had been characterized.
Clark said Thursday she had neither heard Collier's story previously or spoken with Engelbert since the reports came out.
Her Fever teammates also got the chance to speak on the league's issues at the end-of-season media availability. With a new collective bargaining agreement still to be worked out, more complaints about the officiating and a leaguewide increase in injuries, there was plenty to talk about.
“I'm tired of our league, they need to step up and be better,” outspoken guard Sophie Cunningham said, explaining she thinks there's a good chance of a lockout in the spring and that she's heard from NBA players who are upset too. “Our leadership from top to bottom needs to be held accountable. I think that there are a lot of people in the position of power in the WNBA, who they might be really great business people, but they don't know (expletive) about basketball and that's got to change.”
She added: “The game's not fun to watch because everyone's just trying to kill each other because that's how you're going to survive or otherwise you get injured."
Cunningham knows. She and Clark were two of four Fever players who went down with season-ending injuries this season and then watched their teammates win their first playoff series in a decade before pushing second-seeded Las Vegas to a fifth and final game and then into overtime without their other two All-Stars, center Aliyah Boston and guard Kelsey Mitchell. Boston fouled out and Mitchell was taken to a hospital after suffering cramps so severe she couldn't feel her legs or feet.
"I’m feeling fine,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think I could play in a real game for another ... I mean, realistically, just take some time to rest. But I probably should take some time to kind of reset because I lost a lot of fluid. I just kind of felt scared because my legs were so numb and so paralyzed, so to speak, that I couldn’t feel my feet.”
Fever executives said one of their top offseason priorities was re-signing Mitchell, Indiana's top scorer.
But before looking ahead to next season, the WNBA and its players must figure out how to resolve the growing complaints — and the looming labor strife.
"We are in the biggest moment in WNBA history. There's no denying that. Everybody knows that, everybody that's in a place of power has a true responsibility, even myself, we have a responsibility to make sure this game is in a great place going forward with the CBA and, you know, caring for players and building this league to make sure its in a great spot for many years to come.”
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