And now, Taurasi’s back in the villain role.
“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” Taurasi told reporters earlier this week when asked about playing Clark for the first time, moving on quickly to the next question.
Following Friday’s win over the Los Angeles Sparks, Taurasi called the Fever a “super-talented” team ahead of Sunday’s matchup and offered more than her initial thoughts on Clark and Indiana, but didn’t mention the rookie specifically.
“Obviously, Indiana’s another super talented young team that’s going to come in here and play well. The beauty about being young is you don’t know any better. You can play carefree and go into these buildings and let it fly,” Taurasi said.
Fellow Mercury star Brittney Griner’s prediction for Clark was similar to Taurasi’s criticism earlier this season, suggesting her scoring prowess would diminish at the next level. Like Taurasi and Clark, Griner is also a former No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft and is a nine-time all-star.
“It’s different, when you come from college to the pros,” Griner said ahead of Clark’s regular-season debut. “I went from top dog to my numbers going down a bit. You’re going up against grown women. This is how they feed their families. This is not just for the love of the [game]. This is their livelihood. I had to get stronger, lock in a little more. There will be some growing [pains] for her, but she’ll be fine.”
This is Clark’s first chance to counter Taurasi’s previous comments doubting her abilities.
“Reality is coming,” Taurasi told ESPN during Iowa’s run to a Final Four last season. “You look superhuman playing against some 18-year-olds but you’re going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time. There is gonna be a transition period where you’re going to have to give yourself some grace as a rookie.”
Clark took the initial comments from Taurasi in stride.
“When you’re on the court with this much talent, you can’t take a second off,” Clark said after her debut. “You relax for one second, and they’re going to beat you on a screen. They’re going to beat you on whatever it is. I think that’s the biggest thing, is you cannot relax in this league for one second. So I think getting used to that, just playing hard every single second.”
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Clark and the Fever battle Taurasi and the Mercury on Sunday in Arizona at 3 p.m. EST in a nationally-televised game.