Caitlin Clark finished with 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting against the Sun.
Caitlin Clark finished with 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting against the Sun.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Caitlin Clark wants to make very clear: She’s a Pacers fan.
That said, the Indiana Fever star had plenty of kind things to say about the Celtics — and Boston — before Tuesday’s game against the Connecticut Sun at TD Garden upon her first visit to the city.
“Obviously, if you’re a basketball fan, if you grow up a fan, you love the Celtics.
“Well, maybe, I guess you could hate ‘em,” she said to laughs.
“I think, for myself, the Celtics [are] one of the premier organizations of the NBA. You always grow up knowing what the Celtics are about, and obviously, having won a championship two years ago now, it’s kind of cool to just be in this building and … surround yourself with the greatness that has played in this arena.”
Clark shouted out a few players — Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Jaylen Brown, the latter of whom was among the sold-out crowd of 19,156.
“They shoot a lot of threes, which, maybe people make an argument against, but for myself, I think that’s fun,” she said. (Sounds like Joe Mazzulla would be a Clark fan.)
“I enjoy that, I think it’s a great style of basketball. So, I think anytime you come into an arena and there’s just so much history hanging from the rafters, you certainly look up and soak it in.”
Clark and the Fever flew into Boston after their win Sunday over the Wings in Dallas, so she didn’t have much time to explore the city before preparing for Indiana’s eventual 85-77 win over Connecticut. She and teammate Lexi Hull ate at Earl’s Kitchen + Bar near their hotel in the Back Bay, but Clark “didn’t really get to do a ton.”
Clark checked the Red Sox schedule to see if they were in town and she struck out. MLB is on its All-Star break.
“I would have loved to go to a Red Sox game and seen Fenway. I guess I could have gone to Fenway and looked at it with no people in it, but I didn’t do that,” she joked.
She said she’d like to come back and explore Boston’s history.
“I honestly was on TikTok, [searching] the best things to do in Boston, just so I can see even though I’m not going to do them. And I think that’s what’s fun about going to these new places in these new cities, you get to experience the culture and the people that are here too.”
Katie McInerney can be reached at katie.mcinerney@globe.com. Follow her @k8tmac.