Caitlin Clark continued shattering WNBA records Saturday night but Jason Whitlock has claimed that the rookie hindered the Indiana Fever more than helped.
At only 22 years of age, Clark became the fastest player to reach 500 points
and 200 assists in the history of women’s professional basketball just three months into her WNBA career thanks to her 23 points and eight assists against the Minnesota Lynx.
However, she also added another seven turnovers to her record, taking her average to 5.6 for the season – something that Whitlock took great issue with.
The sports columnist took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to hit out at the No. 1 overall draft pick for letting her team down.
‘They gotta quit making excuses for Caitlin Clark’s turnovers,’ he wrote. ‘It’s sloppy and hurting her team.’
Whitlock wasn’t the only one to single out Clark’s poor turnover record but others still defended the former Iowa Hawkeye, claiming she made up for it in other aspects.
‘As I pointed out on this week’s “Skip Bayless Show,” Caitlin has already shattered the WNBA single-season record for turnovers WITH 12 GAMES LEFT,’ Skip Bayles posted to X Saturday night.
‘But I forgive many of them bc they’re so close to being spectacular passes. She also leads the league in assists … and WOW passes.’
Since Clark’s dubious record-setting 10-turnover debut, her assist-to-turnover ratio has jumped from 1.23 to 1 in May and June to 2.19 to 1 in eight games since July 1.
And the 22-year-old seems to set league records tumbling almost every week.
She broke the WNBA’s single-season rookie mark for assists on August 18, reaching No. 232 and ending Ticha Penicheiro’s 26-year run as the record holder.
In her final game before the WNBA’s break for the Olympics, Clark broke the league’s single-game record with 19 assists, capping a run of six double-digit assist games in a seven-game span.
If Clark continues to average 8.3 assists per game, she could shatter Alyssa Thomas’ single-season record of 316 set last season.
She needs eight 3s to break Rhyne Howard’s rookie record of 85 set in 2022 and with 22 3s over the final 12 games, she would be the seventh WNBA player with 100 in a season.
In addition to the assists, Clark is the league’s highest-scoring rookie at 17.8 points a game.
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Source: USA Today
