There is no off switch for Caitlin Clark.
After garnering fame as an All-American point guard for Iowa — and becoming the NCAA’s Division I all-time scoring leader across women’s and men’s basketball — the Indiana Fever guard explained the difficult side of life in the spotlight.
“The hardest part about being Caitlin Clark? I’d say is having to feel like you’re always on,” Clark said in the ESPN+ four-part series “Full Court Press,” which premiered Saturday. “You just have bad days, and there are days where you don’t want to talk to anyone.
“But somebody comes up to you, and this is their 10-second interaction with you. So you better smile and be kind. But at the same time, it’s just like, you just want to be normal sometimes.”
The 22-year-old Clark, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft last month, and her boyfriend, Connor McCaffery were filmed while out to breakfast at The Dandy Lion in Iowa City at the time.
It was the day after Iowa’s dominant 84-57 win over Indiana on Jan. 13.
The couple was standing by the front door, waiting for a table, when multiple fans walked by and gave Clark compliments, such as, “You’re amazing,” and “You were awesome.”
One woman said, “We drove from Chicago to see you yesterday, to see the whole team.”
Clark, an Iowa native, then stepped outside to take photos with fans.
When she and McCaffery sat down at a table to eat, another fan walked over and said, “Good game,” before giving her a high-five.
Clark’s smile quickly faded after the fan walked away and she looked somber while taking a drink of water.
“This is not the same as what it was. Me and you, we cannot go and just walk around like nobody knows who you are. That’s not the reality of the situation,” McCaffery said in the documentary. “And I think there are still moments when she realizes that, like, ‘Damn, that kind of sucks.'”
It’s unclear when Clark and McCaffery, who currently works as a team assistant for the Indiana Pacers, got together. She went public with their relationship on social media in August 2023.
Clark’s life changed drastically after her rise to fame at Iowa, where her celebrity helped boost economy and sell out season tickets at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first time in program history.
The sold-out crowds, which saw fans travel from across the United States to see Clark, added as much as $82.5 million to the state’s economy, according to a report from the Common Sense Institute.
Clark’s star power played a major role in the growth and dominance of women’s college basketball throughout March Madness — and it has since carried over to the WNBA.
The 2024 WNBA draft was the most-watched ever with 2.45 million viewers.
A few teams, including the Aces, Mystics and Sparks have moved arenas to accommodate fans when they play Clark and the Fever.
Some WNBA teams have increased ticket prices for games against Indiana, according to Front Office Sports.
The WNBA has also finally started a charter program so its teams can stop flying commcercial.
The Fever open the 2024 WNBA season against the Sun in Connecticut on Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Episodes 3 and 4 of “Full Court Press” premiere Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET on ABC and will stream live on the ESPN App. All episodes will be available on demand on ESPN+ following initial broadcast.