BALTIMORE — Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark missed her team’s game against the Washington Mystics on May 28 with a left quadriceps injury, but it wasn’t just any game — it was the first WNBA game ever played in Baltimore.
That was no problem for the many fans who showed up to support the league as a whole and specifically the nearby Mystics. Fans were decked out in Washington gear ranging from a few brand-new red Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen jerseys to a flurry of Shakira Austin T-shirts. They saw the Mystics win, 83-77, in front of a sellout crowd.
Austin had 13 points off of the bench, going 5-for-9 from the field in her return from a left ankle sprain. She grew up in Fredericksburg, Va., and played at Maryland for two years.
“It’s up for discussion whether we include Baltimore in the DMV sometimes,” she joked after the game.
The intense player fed off of the crowd’s energy when she sent former No. 1 overall pick Aliyah Boston’s shot into the stands with a swat.
“The DMV culture in itself, we all carried ourselves a certain way,” Austin said. “We have a vibe, we have an energy when it comes to being an athlete from here. We just take pride in that. It’s shown throughout the whole DMV and that’s just something that’s exciting for young athletes that are coming in and watching us and the professionals that have made a name for themselves.”
Joining Austin on the podium following the game was Mystics guard Brittney Sykes, whose 21 points on 6-for-17 shooting tied a game high. She added nine rebounds and four assists.
Sykes had cousins from Baltimore at the game. Sykes and her cousins often hooped together growing up. Baltimore is where Sykes discovered her love for the game even though she is from Newark, N.J.
Sykes hopes that she inspired others the way that her cousins did for her.
“Baltimore fans go hard for their sports — especially basketball — and my cousins, them being from here, they’re the reasons why I picked up a ball,” Sykes said. “There’s something special in that and understanding the history that goes behind the women hoopers that have come out of Baltimore and just being able to bring this game here, it’s so much more than basketball. Now, we’ve been able to show the little girls that are closer to Baltimore that you have a possibility to go to the league.”
Washington’s next game is on May 30 at 7:30 p.m. at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C., against the defending champion New York Liberty.
Basketball makes its way to Baltimore
Fever head coach Stephanie White took a look around Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena’s away media room prior to the game, sitting squarely within a city that had never hosted a WNBA game.
Baltimore has produced the likes of Angel McCoughtry, Angel Reese, Nia Clouden and Bri Jones but had not hosted a WNBA game until May 28. How could that be possible?
White, who grew up playing basketball in Indiana and played professionally for the Charlotte Sting and the Fever, wants to continue bringing the WNBA to non-traditional markets.
“I think it’s really important,” White said of Baltimore seeing the WNBA for the first time. “I’ve begun to see that in some of our preseason games as well. We get to different environments — college towns, some different cities.
“I love that we do this in the WNBA because there are lot of WNBA fans, there are a lot of young people who are coming to their first WNBA game that might not have the opportunity to get to the nearest city, that might not get to a WNBA environment that they want to go to. I think it’s really important to continue to grow the game.”
Jonathan Williams and his father, Merrill, drove up from Yorktown, Va., to Baltimore to see Caitlin Clark and the Fever. While the early Father’s Day gift didn’t go quite as planned with Clark missing the game due to a quad injury, Jonathan and Merrill were as excited to see their favorite team play in an unfamiliar city.
Merrill grew up in Indiana and went to college at the University of Texas at El Paso, so he watched teams coached by Bobby Knight and Don Haskins for years. That built his enjoyment of the game.
“Basketball has been in my life since the very beginning,” Merrill said. “… I knew [Haskins] very well because a lot of times we’d fly on the same plane going around to some of the games. I also knew Bobby Knight because we met a few times because he was the coach of Indiana University.”
Jonathan was born and raised in El Paso, graduated high school in 2002 and moved to Yorktown soon after. Basketball is one of the biggest bonds that Jonathan has with his father. The two attend a ton of Old Dominion men’s basketball and Christopher Newport women’s basketball games together. He’s a Phoenix Suns fan — Charles Barkley is his favorite player, naturally.
His biggest draw was the absent Clark, but he still made the most of the night by spending quality time with his father.
“I followed Clark when she was with Iowa in the Final Fours and everything and was just amazed to see her,” Jonathan said. “But I have always liked watching from March Madness basketball to NBA basketball. I love it all around.”
Photo Credit: Kyle Andrews/PressBox