Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Caitlin Clark turns focus back to basketball as training camp opens
INDIANAPOLIS | Caitlin Clark got back to the basics Sunday — working out on a basketball court.
Here, as the newest member of the Indiana Fever, she’s learning how she’ll fit into this new offensive system, building chemistry with her new teammates and learning the nuances of what it means to be the WNBA’s highest-profile rookie.
Sure, Clark anticipates some bumps this season; she wouldn’t expect anything less. But giving the sport she loves her full attention is really all Clark ever wanted.
“I think that’s what I was most excited for, getting all that other stuff out of the way,” the former Iowa star said as Indiana’s training camp opened. “The draft was amazing, New York City was amazing, Los Angeles was amazing, but I was excited to get here and get back to playing basketball, you know, doing my job.”
Over the past two seasons, these WNBA rookies have created the kind of buzz around women’s basketball most fans only dreamed about, and Clark is undisputedly at the head of the class.
Ticket sales increased at every venue she appeared and when Clark’s games were televised, ratings spiked. Her chase of the Division I career scoring record captivated basketball fans across America and she even appeared on “Saturday Night Live.”
Perhaps even more fittingly, the transition from the established stars to newcomers such as Clark officially started the same day another trailblazing performer, Candace Parker, announced her retirement.
But, like Parker, Clark enters this season with one primary goal: Winning games.
“I think no matter what happens there’s going to be expectations and pressure on my shoulders and pressure on this team to be really good. That’s how you want it,” Clark said. “We wouldn’t want anything else. We want people showing up to our games, people expecting us to win a lot of basketball games this year and I’m expecting myself to play really well. I don’t think it’s anything that’s ever been different for me.”
That kind of talk certainly is new to the Fever.
Indiana hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2016, hasn’t posted a winning season since 2015 and has been mostly irrelevant nationally since Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings’ retirement. Over the past five seasons, the Fever won 28 games.
Iowa, meanwhile, went 65-12 and with two national runner-up finishes in Clark’s final two college seasons.
But the pairing of Clark and Aliyah Boston, the WNBA’s unanimous rookie of the year last season, has turned Indiana into one of the league’s hottest tickets.
Several opponents already have moved games to larger arenas and Boston, for one, is eager to see how quickly Indiana’s new lineup will mesh. Clark arrived in town early this past week and has been turning heads with her workouts ever since.
“I think Caitlin has a different eye for the game. You’re able to see how well she passes the ball and how well she shoots it,” Boston said. “You see her communicating, you see the way she can find you, I mean her passes are tremendous. I’m like ‘OK, I’ll get a touch, just let me get down there’ just because of how well she passes it.”
Clark’s transitioning from college ball to the pro level may speeding up, too.
For most of the 2 1/2-hour practice open to the media, Clark worked with Indiana’s starters and true to form, Clark lined up one 3-pointer after another including some of those trademark logo 3s.
Still, it was Clark’s crisp passes that took teammates and even second-year coach Christie Sides by surprise.
“Her ability to space the floor for us is just incredible,” Sides said. “We’re going to have five players on the court that can shoot it, but her passing ability — you saw some of the passes she made. I’m more mad at the how many missed layups we had. I think we’re just not used to having those, someone who can make those passes.”
Clark can make them and will make them, and how the Fever responds to her presence will largely dictate how successful Indiana will be this season.
But the key for Clark will be getting acclimated quickly to a new team, a new home and a new style of play by Friday’s preseason opener in Dallas.
“It’s definitely different, but that’s what you expect when you start a new chapter in your life, she said. “It’s fast, fast shot clock, but I think all of you know that’s how I like to play. So I think it suits my game pretty well. It’s a fast pace, a lot faster than college and you’ve to learn quicker because you’ve got to get your mind on Friday.”
Candace Parker, a three-time WNBA champion, announces retirement
Candace Parker always said she’d know when it would be time to retire. That day came Sunday.
The three-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist announced on social media that her career was over after 16 seasons.
“The competitor in me always wants 1 more, but it’s time,” Parker wrote in an Instagram post. “My HEART & body knew, but I needed to give my mind time to accept it.”
Parker, 38, had told The Associated Press in November she wanted to play another season if she could get healthy from a foot injury that kept her off the court last season. But she cautioned that she didn’t want to “cheat the game,” or herself, and expressed the same in announcing her retirement ahead of the Aces’ attempt to win a third title in a row. Parker has had 10 surgeries over her career.
“I promised I’d never cheat the game & that I’d leave it in a better place than I came into it. … I always wanted to walk off the court with no parade or tour, just privately with the ones I love,” she wrote. “What now was to be my last game, I walked off the court with my daughter. I ended the journey just as I started it, with her.”
Parker played her first 13 seasons in the league with the Los Angeles Sparks, establishing her dominance early as a No. 1 pick who won Rookie of the Year and league MVP in the same season. Parker was the only WNBA player to accomplish that feat, averaging 18.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists while helping the Sparks to a 10-win improvement in 2008.
Parker earned her second MVP award in 2013 and won her first title in 2016 with the Sparks. She’d go on to win a second title with the Chicago Sky in 2021 and a third with the Las Vegas Aces last season. She’s the only player in league history to win a championship with three different teams.
“The memories Candace Parker created for a generation of women’s basketball fans will remain ingrained in our collective conscience forever, but she has given so much more to the game beyond her accolades and statistics,” The Aces said in a statement. “As a teammate and mentor, a mother and wife, a baller, broadcaster, and businesswoman she has inspired countless young people, both boys and girls, to chase and achieve their dreams.”
Parker played for the late Pat Summitt’s last two national championship teams at Tennessee in 2007 and 2008. She then left with one year of eligibility remaining.
She won Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 before shockingly being left off the 2016 team.
“I think obviously Candace has had an amazing career. I’m a little bit sad about it because you love going up against her, the legend that she is,” Liberty star Breanna Stewart said. “What she has done on and off the court has been amazing for our league. Appreciate all she’s done to help me get to where I am. We’ll definitely miss her this season.”
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello coached Parker overseas in Russia for a few years during the winter.
“She’s a trailblazer. Just a wonderful human being and what she’s done for this sport,” Brondello said. ‘Hopefully it’s celebrated. I’ve got a lot of respect for her. Our kids grew up together when I was coaching in Russia. It’s kind of sad. Everyone knows when it’s the right time.”
Parker began working in broadcasting during her playing career. She has worked as an analyst for the NCAA Tournament with CBS Sports and for NBA TV.
She had surgery on her foot in July 2023 and told the AP it still pained her at the end of last year.
“This offseason hasn’t been fun on a foot that isn’t cooperating,” she wrote in her post Sunday. “My mission in life, like Pat Summitt always said, is to ‘chase people and passions and you will never fail.’ Being a wife & mom still remains priority #1 & I’ve learned that time flies, so I plan to enjoy my family to the fullest!”
Alcaraz earns another comfortable win in Madrid
MADRID | Carlos Alcaraz continues to make a successful return from injury at the Madrid Open.
The two-time defending champion cruised past Thiago Seyboth Wild in the third round on Sunday to earn another comfortable win.
Alcaraz won 6-3, 6-3 for his second straight victory in his first tournament after skipping Monte Carlo and Barcelona because of an arm injury.
“I think I played at a really good level,” Alcaraz said. “Coming into this match I was nervous a little bit because I didn’t know how my forearm was going to be. Thiago has big shots. He is really strong. I am really happy with the performance. It was difficult a little bit at the end, at 5-0 and then serving at 5-3. I am really happy to get it at the end.”
The second-seeded Alcaraz had made his debut at the tournament with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Alexander Shevchenko.
Alcaraz had been scheduled to play at the Monte Carlo Masters and he also missed Barcelona to try to fully recover ahead of the French Open next month.
“I think I’m in a good shape right now. I’m not feeling anything in the forearm, and I played good tennis,” the 20-year-old Alcaraz said. “Obviously I’m not hitting my forehand on my 100% … but I’m just focused to hitting the forehand as much relaxed as I can. I’m really happy to be competitive without pain.”
No. 3-ranked Alcaraz is trying to become the first player to win three straight Madrid Open titles. He will next face Jan-Lennard Struff, his opponent in last year’s final in Madrid.
Andrey Rublev continued his return to form with a 7-6 (10), 6-4 win against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The world No. 8 arrived in Madrid coming off a four-match losing streak before defeating Facundo Bagnis in his opening match.
Tallon Griekspoor got his first top-20 win on clay on Sunday by defeating world No. 12 Holger Rune 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the fourth round at an ATP 1000 event for just the second time.
Texans WR Tank Dell shot in Florida, sustains minor wound, team says
Houston Texans wide receiver Tank Dell was shot in Florida and sustained a minor wound, the team announced on social media.
Dell was shot Saturday night in Sanford and has since been released from a hospital “in good spirits,” the team wrote Sunday in its social media post.
“We are in contact with him and his family and will provide more updates when appropriate,” the team wrote.
It was unclear whether Dell’s injury was related to a shooting outside a Sanford party venue on the same night, in which authorities said a teenager wounded 10 people when he opened fire during a private event.
—From AP reports
