Caitlin Clark's Teammates Are Embracing The National Spotlight
During a fresh episode of his Bleav podcast The Big 10 Show, former Big 12/NFL defensive end Adam Carriker reflected on how the teammates of superstar Iowa Hawkeyes point guard Caitlin Clark were handling her new stature as a nationally famous sports figure.
He asked Chad Leistikow of The Des Moines Register and USA Today Sports Network for his thoughts on the way the Clark phenom could be a rising tide that lifts all ships.
"We've talked about the eyeballs on Caitlin, how polarizing it can be," Carriker said. "Well, guess what? If you're one of her teammates, you're right there with her day in and day out to a certain extent. So I'm curious, all the eyeballs, all the attention, all the potential polarization that follows Caitlin Clark, how have her teammates handled that?"
"She's an incredible teammate," Leistikow said. "I wish I had said earlier. She is one of those loving teammates. She shares a lot of her NIL stuff with them... she got them all new Nike's. She's gotten them, you know, presents before, like that kind of thing. But so it's I think that's one of the things that I came into.
"What's interesting is the teammates have been kind of brought into this celebrity thing as well, because they they are now household names as well. A lot of them are I mean, maybe not as much as Caitlin Clark nationally, but like, you know, Kate Martin, Molly Davis, Gabbie Marshall," Leistikow added. "These are all women who I mean, their names are synonymous with Iowa basketball. You know who they're talking about. They can't go to the grocery store either, without getting stopped. So I feel like that they've been they've embraced it in a way."
"Coach Lisa Bloom talks about [how] pressure is a privilege," Leistikow noted. "And I think that's really resonated with a lot of these women, that they are lucky to be in this spot, to embrace it. It's an opportunity. So it's not something to be scared of, to be shied away from. And so I feel like they've handled it pretty well."
