Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever signs autographs ahead of an WNBA game against the Toronto Tempo at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.
Some three hours before tip-off, the teenage girl wearing an Indiana Fever jersey held up her sign to be photographed by a family friend.
It read: Caitlin Clark meet Caitlin Clark.
“Are you Caitlin Clark?” I asked rather innocently. “Not the real one,” she said, then giggled at her answer.
About an hour later, another teenage girl wearing a Fever jersey inside Scotiabank Arena held up her own sign. It read: My name is Caitlin too.”
Needless to say, a lot of people named Caitlin, a lot of people not named Caitlin, and so many of them wearing No. 22 on jerseys that read Indiana or Fever, were part of an event Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena. Games are games and events are events — and there is in fact a difference. This was an event.
A home game that wasn’t really a home game for the expansion Toronto Tempo.
Clark’s first game and the Fever’s first game in Canada was in Toronto, a city where they sampled ketchup chips for the very first time and didn’t think much of them. This night of basketball wasn’t about snacks, it was about the show, about the scene, about Toronto’s actual favourite sport, which is being seen. We play that game about as well as anybody — and for that, the night certainly didn’t disappoint.
The Fever did what they were supposed to do Tuesday night. They beat the Tempo. The Tempo almost did what it was supposed to do. The expansion team, losers of their past 10, lost their 11th straight against the Fever, but at least they put up as much of a battle as possible.
CLARK TAKES OVER AT THE END
The first look at Clark in person, the Gretzky-like phenom who sees things regular humans cannot see, was a lot like too many basketball games — it was up and down and back and forth and when it mattered most, Clark was unstoppable.
The final stats line had her with 24 points, seven assists, three rebounds in the Fever’s 101-95 hold-your-breath win over the Tempo. The stats spoke a little louder than Clark did for the most part on this night. She missed her first three shots from three-point range, got more accurate as this night went on, and found her way when it mattered most.
Clark does the subtle and the impossible and sometimes they are just about the same thing. Impossible to explain without instant replay and maybe another replay after that one.
That’s what people came to see on this night. The tickets were sold out months ago. More than twice the number of those who attend regular season games at Coca-Cola Coliseum paid significantly to show up at Scotiabank on Tuesday.
While the tickets were hardly sold at World Series prices of last October or World Cup prices of earlier this summer — those were obscene — you could get a resold ticket Tuesday afternoon for somewhere between $150 and $350 dollars, depending on where you wanted to sit.
And in these days of overly inflated prices this was almost value for the dollar.
You can keep the tickets years from now and show your friends because no one prints real tickets anymore, but this was a night worth being part of.
A first. The way Michael Jordan was a first in 1996. The way Reggie Jackson was a first in 1977. You always remember your first. Big game against big star. The way it was to witness Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell with the Fever, combining to score 53 points.
One day the Fever will play in Toronto and they won’t be the attraction. They won’t get all the cheers — or in the case of the celebrity, Sophie Cunningham, they won’t get all the boos either (she got them all night long).
CLARK PUMPED TO PLAY IN TORONTO
This is a building process for the first-year team. It doesn’t happen quickly for most expansion teams. It almost happened Tuesday night and almost is what happens when you’re a first-year team.
Clark said she was “super excited” to be here. She noticed basketball fans on the streets of Toronto, those around the hotel, those waiting as the bus pulled up to the arena in the afternoon.
Toronto left almost as much an impression on Clark as she left on the city.
This is what she wants to be. Someone who turns those bored with basketball into a fan, into a lifer. It’s early to be talking about a legacy but in her third professional season she knows what she wants to be.
She’s on her way there. Building a fan base and a legacy and changing a league and a sport all in a day’s work. Grabbing people and pulling them along for the metaphorical ride.
“It’s a spectacle sometimes,” said Fever coach Stephanie White. “But it’s a privilege to play in the places.”
A privilege to come to Toronto and be part of beating the Tempo on Tuesday night. A close game that was never really all that close.