Caitlin Clark Says Her Parents “Struggle” With the Hate She Gets, Because “We’re Just Normal People With Feelings.”

Sportswire Icon / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
By ![]()
January Nelson
The actor who has won two awards says that he has learned to shut up the noise, but his parents cannot do the same. When racial debates and cheap arguments pile up, they think of themselves.

The letter followed a June 24 game in Indianapolis when Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas made contact with Clark’s throat with her fist during a loose ball. There’s nothing wrong with being called live. The league later upgraded it to Flagrant 2 and suspended Thomas for one game. Clark left the game early with a back strain, and Fever coach Stephanie White called the incident “gross” and “totally unacceptable.”

Eleven House Republicans, led by Rep. August Pfluger, put the WNBA “on notice” in a letter saying Clark “has been groped in the hip, poked in the eye, and hit in the throat during games.” They wrote that the incidents “go beyond fair play” and the Department of Justice, the EEOC, and the Department of Labor investigate if the pattern amounts to a hostile work environment.

That’s what Clark told Michael Lee of The Washington Post. “They see all these things, too. You have to remember, we’re normal people with feelings. My parents have feelings. It can be really hard sometimes,” he said of his mother and father.

Clark, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, said he needs to build a defense that his parents don’t have. “I feel like I have a good ability to block everything,” he said. “Since you’re in this position, you better have that ability, or it will break you at some point.”
He also downplayed how much of the story has moved away from the game itself. “I think it’s hard for people to remember, I like to play basketball. This is my job. This is what I came for. I didn’t come for all the other things,” he said.

The rampant rage isn’t just on the internet. Candace Parker recently entered a peer poll that ranked Clark as the 11th best point guard in the league, saying that players who are stuck need to “go to a therapist and find out what childhood problems you have.”
Thanks for reading Thought Catalog. Stay with us on Facebook, or visit our website for more.



