Caitlin Clark revealed that as a young girl trying to improve her game, she begged her Dad to pour more concrete in their yard so she could have a true three-point line to shoot from – and he eventually relented.
Clark’s childhood story came up during a recent interview with 60 Minutes.
“I’m begging my dad to, like, tear up some grass and pour more concrete so I could have an entire 3-point line in the driveway,” the WNBA star explained.
Journalist Jon Wertheim then asked if that is what actually happened.
“Oh yeah,” Clark replied. “Because it was like kind of slanted, our driveway was like slanted. Only had 3 point line on one side of the driveway, so I told my dad he had to tear up all this grass and he did.”
Clearly, Clark’s old man’s gesture had a massive impact no one could have foreseen.
Caitlin Clark’s Dad Played A Big Role In Her Becoming A Basketball Star
What a great story. It just kind of adds to the legend that is Caitlin Clark. It’s a little reminiscent of stories I used to hear about Magic Johnson and how he used to dribble a basketball almost literally everywhere he went. Just an obsession with the game.
Or the hockey players who created little mini-rinks in their yards to get as much puck time as possible.
The interview also mentions that infamous game she attended as a child. Seeing the Minnesota Lynx in person as a 12-year-old and being inspired by what she witnessed.
Clark has spoken about it frequently.
Earlier this year, the Indiana Fever guard broke the WNBA rookie scoring record, surpassing Seimone Augustus, who was the first player she ever got to meet in real life at that game.
You can’t even make this stuff up.
“I got my picture with her on my dad’s little phone – it was maybe like a BlackBerry back in the day,” Clark told reporters after the game. “I vividly remember it, I was always a fan of her game and the way she could shoot the ball.”
She was also able to hug her favorite player, Maya Moore, on the court after a Minnesota Lynx game back in 2014.
“Ten seconds can go a long way in somebody’s life,” Clark said of the memory. “That’s a good lesson whether you play sports or don’t play sports, how you treat somebody matters.”
The Fever guard says she tries to pattern her own behavior after Moore and Augustus by taking “as much time as I can for those young girls.”
Imagine, young ladies across the country demanding their fathers pour concrete so they can shoot like Caitlin.
RELATED: With Fever’s Playoffs Hopes Over, Here’s When Caitlin Clark Is Expected To Play Basketball Again
The Interview Made Other News
Other news to come out of the 60 Minutes interview was less remarkable as it was funny. Wertheim tried to push the line that the WNBA as a whole had a great season, not just Caitlin Clark.
Failing to recognize that one doesn’t have a great season without the other is … something.
“The real breakthrough star of this WNBA season is the W itself,” Wertheim said. “Building off a college season in which was unimaginable just a few years ago, the women’s championship game outdrew the men.”
“W games can draw more eyeballs than NBA games do.”
Gosh, Jon, it’s a mystery as to what is making that happen.
It has been reported over the weekend that Clark did, in fact, take home WNBA Rookie of the Year honors. However, the voting hasn’t yet been broken down.
Prior to that she was named first-team All-WNBA and was unanimously named the WNBA Rookie of the Year by a 15-person panel by the Associated Press.
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