Caitlin Clark is bizarrely asked to sign a fan’s ultrasound picture during a Pacers playoff game as basketball’s new star is given a standing ovation from 17,000-strong Indiana crowd
Caitlin Clark may have had some bizarre requests since taking the basketball scene by storm but she got a particularly odd one on Friday night.
The 22-year-old was given a standing ovation by her new home fans as she turned out to support the Indiana Pacers in their NBA playoff game.
The WNBA‘s No. 1 overall draft pick and Division I’s career scoring leader revved up a raucous crowd by pumping the accelerator of a replica IndyCar before Game 3 against the Milwaukee Bucks.
But as she sat in the stands to watch the game unfold, one fan nearby asked Clark to sign her ultrasound picture.
Laughing, Clark kindly obliged and scrawled her autograph onto the picture before handing it back to the ecstatic fan.
Caitlin Clark was bizarrely asked to sign a fan’s ultrasound picture at a Pacers playoff game
Laughing, Clark obliged and scrawled her autograph onto the picture before handing it back
It was Clark’s first public appearance on the Gainbridge Fieldhouse court since the Indiana Fever drafted her last week.
Naturally, the nearly 17,000 fans broke into loud applause for the city’s newest superstar.
Clark did not speak but when she joined her new Fever teammates midway through the second quarter to toss T-shirts into the stands, veteran guard Erica Wheeler did.
‘Playoffs!’ Wheeler told the team’s emcee when asked about this season’s goal. ‘We want to be doing this and we’ve got the pieces. We want it to look like this every night.’
Indiana just might make it look that way – if it makes its first playoff appearance since 2016.
Aliyah Boston and Clark throw tee-shirts to fans during a time out during the first half
It was Clark’s first public outing at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse court since Indiana drafted her
But Clark’s presence already has spurred a change. The Fever are already one of the WNBA’s hottest tickets – as was the case during her college career at Iowa when sellouts became the norm and television ratings hit record highs.
Ticket sales in Indiana already have spiked and before she’s even played a pro game, some teams including two-time defending WNBA champ Las Vegas have already moved home games to larger venues.
Clark arrived in Indianapolis last Wednesday for an introductory news conference, then returned home with her family to Iowa.
She was back in town Friday night for the Pacers first home playoff game since April 21, 2019, and will stick around for the start of training camp Sunday.
