I've reread this article several times today and I really do think it is required reading for anyone even remotely interested in Caitlin Clark
The thing I want to specifically talk about this post is how she dealt with her return from injury
It is clear in this article, and I think vastly underreported and underappreciated by many including me just what kind of a mental battle she was going thru in learning to trust herself and trust her own body after her sequence of injuries last year
I know we all heard about it, I know we all went, yeah yeah sure, but we all collectively freaked out when she went on the bike during that first game of the season, we all freaked out when she sat out the Portland game in game number 4, we said there was a new phantom injury, we said the medical team were mismanaging her, we said she'd never be healthy again. Famously the No Cap Space people said her career would be inexorably altered forever
And then of course, there was the freakout of all freakouts that took all of that and turned the volume up to 1000% when she was held out of a game last minute without warning
Though this article doesn't explicitly state it, the things it does say coupled with Caitlin's statements from the moment make it exceedingly clear that she was the driving force behind these decisions, that she felt something twinge and wanted to take every precaution to give her peace of mind that her body wasn't breaking down again, and (far from mismanaging her injury) the Fever did everything they could to accommodate her, including taking intense and massive public criticism and scrutiny without a single word of complaint
I for one am very glad Caitlin feels better both physically and mentally, I am glad that she is back to 100% on the floor and is playing like the MVP she is and will be, and is out of what seems to have been an absolute mental and emotional crucible
And I will try to do better in future to be more mindful of the mental and emotional battles she is facing when she says she is facing them