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Caitlin Clark had quite a Sunday for the Indiana Fever.
She broke the WNBA rookie assist record with a full-court pass for a highlight-reel dime, and she got a technical foul for punching a stanchion in frustration, which is weird because she wasn’t doing anything to particularly show up the referee or anything.
But after the Indiana Fever win, she talked about how she wanted to thank the ref, because she felt like she and the team played better after that.
“I got a technical for basically being mad at myself, because I missed a three, and then I went and hit the backboard, and he told me it was disrespectful to the game of basketball,” she said.
Here’s more:
“I don’t know. It reminded me of the technical I got in college, where I said ‘damn it,’ where it’s like a personal frustration. Had nothing to do with my team, had nothing to do with the reffing, had nothing to do with the other team. It’s just because I’m a competitor. And I felt like I should have been making more shots. But I think he fired me up to continue to play a lot harder. I thought we got a lot better after he did that. I want to thank him for that.”