When the WNBA season officially gets underway later this month, all of the league's eyes will be on second-year guard Caitlin Clark.

The Indiana Fever superstar captured the attention of casual and diehard fans alike during her historic rookie campaign in which she broke nearly every first-year record in the book. This year, the expectations couldn't be higher for Clark, now backed by a savvy new head coach in Stephanie White and a fortified roster of veterans. Her 2025-26 season kicks off on May 17 against the Chicago Sky.

But, before looking ahead to the future, let's revisit some of Clark's coolest highlights and plays from her first season in the W.

Here are the top 10 moments from Clark's rookie campaign:

10. Beating Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury (June 30, 2024)

Caitlin Clark, Diana Taurasi, Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury
Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi (3) embraces Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) before tipoff on June 30, 2024, at Footprint Center in Phoenix. | Owen Ziliak/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Sports is a petty, petty business. When now-retired WNBA vet Diana Taurasi sent Clark an ominous message about entering the league, the Fever rookie didn't waste any time clapping back.

In the first matchup between Clark and Taurasi, Clark helped lead the Fever to a thrilling comeback win over the Phoenix Mercury—and she did it in style. Clark just barely missed out on her first triple-double (that would come soon enough) and finished with 15 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds, including this awesome logo three:

After the 88-82 victory, the Fever social media team trolled Taurasi with the perfect tweet.

Clark would go on to beat Taurasi two more times later in the season—defeating Phoenix by a combined 24 points—and outplay the Mercury star in nearly every statistical category by the end of the year.

9. Logo Three vs. Connecticut Sun (May 20, 2024)

Another Fever game, another Clark logo three.

Clark showed she wasn't scared of pulling up from deep since the beginning of her rookie season—she had, after all, been doing it for a while for Iowa at the collegiate level. During the Fever's brutal early slate of games, Clark sank one particularly impressive three-pointer against the Connecticut Sun.

Out of all her long-range shots, this one from way downtown started with a huge block from Aliyah Boston on one end of the court and ended up with the home fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse up on their feet screaming Clark's name.

Clark's dagger three gave the Fever the narrow lead in the fourth quarter, though they would end up losing to the Sun, 88-84.

It was arguably the first time WNBA fans and even her own teammates sat back and realized they would get a whole season of Clark making absolutely crazy buckets. She ultimately would set a new WNBA rookie record for most three-pointers with 122, which was also second-most in a season in league history.

8. Half-Court Dime to Kelsey Mitchell (Aug. 16, 2024)

Other than long-range shooting ability, what sets Clark apart from the rest? Her vision.

The Fever guard threw a whole highlight reel's worth of half- and full-court dimes last year, but this high-IQ assist to Kelsey Mitchell belonged in the cream of the crop. During a game against the Mercury, Clark made the cross-court pass in transition without breaking stride, sending the ball right into Mitchell's waiting hands for the easy layup. The cameraman even struggled to get the picture-perfect pass in the frame:

Here's another angle:

Clark and Mitchell proved to be one of the league's strongest backcourt duos last season. Expect to see them run a more seamless version of the Fever's offense with one year of chemistry under their belt.

7. Meeting Simone Biles, Taylor Swift

Caitlin Clark, Taylor Swift, Indiana Fever
Recording artist Taylor Swift (upper middle) sits with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (upper right) during the fourth quarter of a 2025 AFC divisional round game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Stepping off the court for just a moment, Clark got to meet two of the most famous women in the world last year in Simone Biles and Taylor Swift. The Fever star is already a household name herself, and her popularity will likely only continue to grow as she takes her WNBA career to new heights. Still, seeing Clark interact with two incredibly influential and empowering female icons outside of basketball was, without a doubt, cool.

She first linked up with Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, shortly after the 2024 Paris Olympics at a Fever home game on Aug. 28. The two shared a priceless locker room moment:

Clark then gave herself a well-deserved break following her hectic WNBA season and attended Swift's Eras Tour twice in Indianapolis. She would later accept a personal invite from Swift to watch a Kansas City Chiefs playoff game together at Arrowhead Stadium in January.

It's something most rookies can only imagine doing in their wildest dreams.

6. Ankle-Breaking Crossover vs. Minnesota Lynx (Aug. 24, 2024)

We think this one speaks for itself.

The silky move. Making her defender touch earth. The off-the-charts level of aura.

Yeah, Clark is pretty good at this.

5. Breaking the WNBA Single-Game Assists Record (July 17, 2024)

Finally, we get into some of Clark's records. Among her many admirable feats last year, Clark set the league's single-game assists record with 19 dimes against the Dallas Wings in July.

You can watch all 19 of them here:

Peep her cheeky behind-the-back pass to NaLyssa Smith at 1:25. The one that broke the record was a smart dish out to Mitchell at the top of the arc, who coolly sank the three to give Clark her 19th assist.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but in this case, Clark's work also makes the dream work. Her playmaking abilities may already be unrivaled in the league, and she's only going to get better from here.

Clark would also set the WNBA rookie record for most assists in a season with 337.

4. Breaking the WNBA Rookie Scoring Record (Sep. 15, 2024)

Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) celebrates a three-point basket Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, during the game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. | Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The sky was truly the limit for Clark in her first year, as it felt like there was no rookie record that was safe from the Fever star's reach.

Toward the end of the season when the Fever had already qualified for the playoffs, Clark took aim at all-time WNBA great Seimone Augustus's rookie single-season scoring record of 744 points, which Augustus set in 2006.

During a game against the Wings, Clark managed to create some space between her and her defender at the top of the arc, took a quick glance at the basket and then it let it fly. Clark ended up breaking Augustus's longstanding record with the most casual three-pointer ever:

As for the cherry on top, Clark finished the game with a career-high 35 points while adding eight assists. She ended her season with 769 points, standing alone in history with a new rookie scoring record that truthfully may not be eclipsed for some time.

It sure seems as though Clark likes making history against the Wings. This year, the matchup will get a little more intriguing as Wings' 2025 No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers prepares to face off against Clark. The Fever and Wings will meet four times, with the first game scheduled for June 27 at College Park Center.

3. First Rookie Triple-Double in WNBA History (July 6, 2024)

The saying, "There's always a first for everything," might as well have been written for Caitlin Clark. On July 6, 2024, Clark became the first rookie in the history of the WNBA to record a triple-double.

The Fever star accomplished the feat in her 22nd WNBA game against the No. 1-seeded New York Liberty—who went on to win the 2024 WNBA title—in front of her home fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. In the fourth quarter, Clark grabbed her 10th rebound to secure the triple-double, and the crowd unsurprisingly went haywire:

What Clark did after may have been as cool as the moment itself.

On the other end of the court, Clark found teammate Lexie Hull in the paint with a perfect bounce pass, and Hull drew a shooting foul. With the crowd still in a thunderous frenzy over her triple-double, Clark could be seen telling fans to simmer down so Hull could focus on her free throws. Clark would finish with 19 points, 13 assists and 12 rebounds in a sweet 83-78 victory over the Liberty.

The Fever star notched her second career triple-double months later against the Los Angeles Sparks, becoming just the fifth WNBA player to record multiple triple-doubles in a season.

Look at what it meant to her:

2. Iconic All-Star Game Performance vs. Team USA (July 20, 2024)

It's no secret that Clark's Olympic snub was one of the biggest media storylines of her rookie campaign. To the horror of the rest of the WNBA, that snub may have inadvertently awoken a beast.

Before the Olympic break, Clark was named to her first WNBA All-Star squad last season and was set to face Team USA in an epic showdown between the league's very best players. The Fever star entered the game with the weight of the world's expectations on her shoulders, and she still put together an iconic performance for everyone—especially Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve—to see.

As the stat sheet will show, Clark struggled to get her shot going and scored just four points that night. However, she made her biggest impact with her passing and playmaking talents and recorded 10 dimes, just one shy of Sue Bird's WNBA All-Star Game record.

One of those assists was to none other than fellow rookie Angel Reese in the fourth quarter:

Take a look at another angle of the awesome link-up:

In the first (and probably not last) game Clark and Reese shared the court as teammates, Team WNBA beat Team USA, 117–109.

After the All-Star Game and Olympic break, Clark went on to play some of her best basketball of the season. The rookie phenom averaged an uber-efficient 23.1 points per game for the rest of the year, a mark that trailed only Las Vegas Aces star and to-be league MVP A’ja Wilson.

1. Clinching Fever’s First Playoff Berth Since 2016

Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) in the huddle with teammates against the Phoenix Mercury during a WNBA game at Footprint Center. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

All of Clark's coolest moments so far have been individual, for obvious reasons. Throughout her 2024-25 campaign, Clark's handles, vision, playmaking and long-range shooting left fans wonderstruck on a nightly basis, in the same way Steph Curry's dagger threes or Nikola Jokic's unbelievable passes never cease to awe and amaze.

That said, Clark's crowning achievement in her rookie season may have been what she accomplished for her team: helping lead the Fever to their first playoff appearance since 2016 and end the longest active postseason drought in the WNBA.

To put that into a bit of perspective—in the past seven seasons prior to 2024, the Fever had gone 58-174 and tallied 21 or more losses in every campaign except for the 2020 COVID-shortened one.

The Fever's historic playoff-clinching moment in 2024 officially materialized on Sept. 3, thanks to losses around the league by the Chicago Sky and Atlanta Dream. The team finished the regular season with a 20-20 record.

It was a long time coming for Indiana, who forever changed the course of the organization with their back-to-back No. 1 draft picks, Aliyah Boston and Clark, of the past decade.

As Clark girds herself for her second season in the league, she and the rest of her team can take comfort in knowing the Fever's years-long franchise woes are rapidly disappearing in the rearview mirror. The playoffs are the standard, now. The WNBA championship is the goal.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Top 10 Coolest Moments of Caitlin Clark’s WNBA Rookie Season.

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