Last week, the Indiana Fever vastly improved their team on the court when they selected former South Carolina guard Raven Johnson with the 10th overall pick.
Johnson is a defensive wizard with tons of experience in big games and an offensive skillset that has a lot of potential to grow. She’ll bring plenty of hustle, energy, and defensive tenacity to a team that can really use it. But her impact on the court wasn’t the major storyline after the pick was announced.
Johnson has had some interesting interactions in the past with superstar guard Caitlin Clark, whom she’s now teammates with. The two had a pair of ferocious battles in the NCAA Tournament when Clark was a Hawkeye, with each team claiming a victory.
In their first matchup, back in 2023 at the Final Four, Johnson had one of the lowest moments of her basketball career. In a clip that went viral, Clark was seen waving her off at the three-point line, letting her shoot and miss a wide-open three. Some people thought it was disrespectful of Clark to do that in a game, while others appreciated the gamesmanship. Regardless, from that point on, many have run with the narrative that Johnson has a problem with Clark.
That narrative only accelerated when the Fever selected Johnson to join Clark in the backcourt. Johnson set out to squash that narrative early on when she spoke to the media for the first time as a member of the Fever.
“Sophie Cunningham, Caitlin Clark, Lexie Hull, Kelsey Mitchell… great people to be around,” Johnson said to the media.
Johnson’s appreciation for her new teammates, including Clark, should put to rest this perceived beef that the two of them have. Her new teammates have also shown a ton of love toward Johnson and the work she’s put in so far, furthering the teambuilding in training camp.
The past doesn’t matter now. Regardless of what happened a few years ago in college, Johnson and Clark now have the same goal: to win a WNBA Championship with the Indiana Fever. Both of them will be extremely important if that goal is to be achieved.
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Indiana Fever first-round pick quashes perceived Caitlin Clark beef
Reporting by Zach Hiney, Hawkeyes Wire / Hawkeyes Wire
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