Caitlin Clark says she’s 100%, smiles ‘quite a bit’ at first organized team practice in months
After a season derailed by injuries, the Fever star practiced for the first time since July and says she finally feels like herself again as Team USA opens training camp at Duke.
It’s been a long five months for Caitlin Clark.
And a grueling seven months overall. Dating back to the first week of training camp, she battled injuries throughout her entire sophomore WNBA season. She worked around the clock — hours in the training room, nonstop treatment — in an effort to return.
In the end, she just ran out of time.
On Friday, for the first time since suffering a right groin injury on July 15, Clark participated in a full team setting on the basketball court — this time with Team USA.
“It feels nice to finally be back to 100%,” she said on a Zoom call with about 60 reporters after practice.
Clark was one of 18 players available and eager to attend national team training camp over the next three days inside the K-Center at Duke University. Kara Lawson, Duke’s women’s basketball coach, is in her first year as national team head coach.
Clark is joined by Fever teammate Aliyah Boston with Stephanie White assisting as a court coach. (That’s a USAB term.) Fever executives Kelly Krauskopf and Amber Cox are also in Durham, N.C.
(Note: Boston was not one of the players made available on Zoom.)
Clark, 23, loves to practice — and she missed it dearly after spending most of the WNBA season sidelined. She smiled entering the gym and again while describing how it felt to be back.
“I feel like when I touched the basketball to start warming up, before the practice even started, that’s probably when I felt pretty comfortable,” she said. “I’ve worked so hard, like I haven’t taken a break honestly since the beginning of the WNBA season. Just all my rehab and getting back to where I wanted to be. And then I’m getting even better so that’s been my focus and this has been my next thing that I’ve been working for since our season ended.
“Just really thankful for the training staff and player development and everybody that has been there with me. They haven’t taken a break either because they invest a lot of time and they want me to be successful. For myself, it’s not proving it to yourself again — but it’s just that feeling and I think it just made me smile quite a bit.
“I really did feel like myself out there and just continue to get my lungs back, but I felt like I was moving really well so it was pretty satisfying.”
The previous regime at USA Basketball chose not to include Clark on the 2024 Paris Olympics roster. She was a rookie then — later becoming WNBA Rookie of the Year and a First Team All-WNBA selection. She didn’t express frustration about that decision, more than a year later, but it certainly serves as internal motivation.
“This is the biggest honor you can possibly have playing basketball in our country — wearing ‘USA’ across your chest,” she said. “I’m just excited to be here and honored.”
Sue Bird, now managing director of the women’s national team, wants to use this first camp to set a standard for how Team USA plays and carries itself.
Bird hosted Clark on her podcast and on “The Bird & Taurasi Show” during the 2025 NCAA women’s national championship game broadcast — so there’s a friendly relationship and mutual respect.
Speaking Thursday, before the team’s first practice, Bird praised Clark’s approach throughout a season interrupted by injury.
“That’s a challenge, of course, physically,” Bird said. “That is a challenge mentally to not be able to be on the court, especially with the long offseason. So I thought what was most impressive was just the way she stay engaged.”
Despite being limited to 13 games, Clark traveled to every road game but one, signed thousands of autographs, and remained fully involved on the Fever bench.
Clark reiterated that she did everything she could to return — it just wasn’t possible.
“I gave everything I could to possibly try to play. but my body just wasn’t really letting me. Then I continued to rehab and now feeling back at 100% — and honestly, it took probably longer than I expected.”
Before this year, Clark had never missed a game at Iowa and had no serious injuries in high school. This was uncharted territory.
“When you’re a professional athlete it’s gonna come at some point,” she said. “That’s just how it goes. I think it’s honestly taught me more than I’ve probably ever learned through the course of my career of how to take care of your body, how to get right, how to stay healthy and then just taking time for yourself. Obviously being hurt is an incredibly isolating thing and you don’t really understand it until you go through it.
“It was one injury and then I was like a little better and then it kind of continued to compound and get worse and you know other things pop up and then I had the ankle injury so it feels nice to finally be back to 100%.”
Meanwhile, the WNBA and its players continue ongoing negotiations on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Clark has resisted interest from Unrivaled and the new upstart league, Project B, which launches next fall.
“I plan to play in the WNBA,” Clark said firmly. “Obviously that’s another thing that we need to get done so we have a season coming up here.”
One month ago, she played in The Annika Pro-Am as part of an endorsement deal with Gainbridge.
On Friday, she was back where she belongs — where she thrives. She badly missed the game, and returning to practice may have felt as good for her as her step-back 3s and logo shots feel for fans.
Watch her full comments in the video below: