So Our Girl's Run This Year Is Done

Caitlin Clark, who was drafted by the Indiana  Fever right out of college, managed to get into the playoffs with her team, but got knocked out in the early rounds, and won't play again until April.

I didn't know enough about how the sport goes, to know how Caitlin played with the team, or how they changed their team play so that some of the senior players began to contribute strongly; or how their opposing teams managed to build defenses.  But lots of Fever fans weren't really expecting them to get into the playoffs at all, and were delighted that they did. 

As I said, I don't know enough about the game to comment on the supposed rough play that Caitlin was subjected to.  If there was a race aspect to the bullying (if there was bullying in the first place) that has to be eliminated. 

[Added later:  The story I was told is that a Connecticut player, who was wearing extended fingernails, poked Caitlin in the eye, thus ruining her vision temporarily—or possibly permanently.  One of Caitlin's greatest skills is the ability to sink baskets from far outside the conventional shooting range.  After the incident, Caitlin's percentage was reported to have plummeted.  The Fever lost that game, and—as we know, they were eliminated from the playoffs.]

 I love these two girls!

Kay

P.S. [Added on 10/2]:  The season—for the Fever, at any rate—being over, and the head of the Fever organization having retired, Caitlin is being interviewed by all sorts of journalists and news men.  In every case, Caitlin says just the most loving, and caring, and diplomatic thing that one can imagine, always giving credit to others, to the team, and to the coaches, and even to opposing teams. 

A lot of that is her upbringing.  I was brought up by parents who insisted on kind and gracious behavior, but Caitlin goes way, way beyond that sort of habitual courtesy.  Her gratitude seems genuine and heartfelt.  I'm running out of words to describe the sort of exemplary person that Caitlin is.  The entire team is becoming thoughtful and well-spoken, though I refrain from ascribing that phenomenon to Caitlin's influence.  In contrast, some—not all, but a few—of the women in opposing teams seem to make a point of being rough in their speech, as if to say: don't expect us to sugar-coat what we say, like Caitlin's B.S.

Lexie Hull is a lovely girl, one of Caitlin's closest friends from among her teammates.  She's a tall girl—probably 6 foot 2—and muscled appropriately to her height.  But the remarkable thing is that she does not look particularly big.