INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark was the first overall choice in this year’s WNBA draft, but the way she tells it, if there is ever a competitive trick or treating league, she deserves to be the first draft pick there, too.

A short while ago, Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides talked about how the youthful rookie whose presence, game and personality are dominating the 2024 season, can be funny in practice amidst the veterans on the team. Caitlin Clark, long-range shooter, passer extraordinaire, is also a comedian.

Clark was initially at a loss when informed of Sides’ characterization and asked if she happened to have a joke to tell. Instead, she told a story.

Freedman

It seems that when Clark, all of 22 now, was a little girl, and went trick or treating for Halloween, sometimes dressed as a clown, sometimes as a blue M&M, or in one unusual costume she kept it secret, the adults who answered the door in her West Des Moines, Iowa neighborhood demanded a joke in return for candy. Really?

No one could readily recall any such blackmailing experience in exchange for sweet tooth loot in their backgrounds. This was not an Iowa thing, nor an entire Des Moines thing, but the local candy dispensing policy.

Clark said her mother wrote down what other kids said and that’s how she obtained her material. This is how Clark honed whatever jokester act she possesses. That, and, “I’m just a very sarcastic person.”

By the way, Clark said she never dressed up as a basketball player, perhaps because it was not fantastical enough. After all, she already was one.

Anyone who has watched the 6-foot rookie point guard play during the Fever’s 20-19 season realizes she brings a fierce competitiveness to her job. Teammates see that trait even more often in practice when they engage in little shooting games where score is kept. Caitlin’s got to win.

Clark smiled charmingly as she outlined her main candy gathering days, but her primal killer instinct came through. “I dominated trick or treat,” Clark said, recalling that period of her life, as if trophies were given for collecting the most chocolate candy bars or candy corn. “I had the best joke.”

Clark doesn’t joke around on the court. She is all-in 100 percent of the time. That includes questioning the righteousness of referee foul calls, or out-of-bounds tweets.

The WNBA has this rule that says if a player accrues seven technical fouls in a season, a one-game suspension will follow. Clark, who, almost-by-the-way had a career high 35 points in the Fever’s 110-109 victory over the Dallas Wings in the final regular-season game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, has six.

Determined that Clark not acquire an ignominious sixth technical, teammates appeared to be on patrol for any threatening eruption. Guard Erica Wheeler talked Clark down once. Forward Katie Lou Samuelson intercepted her at midcourt once. Sides pulled Clark from the game at one point and sat her on the bench to chill for a while.

Clark definitely slides into a competitive zone when the stakes are significant, such as a hoops victory or filling a bag of candy. Of this protective cocoon formed by teammates to head off any over-the-top fuming, Clark said, “They just think it’s funny.”

It’s no laughing matter for the Fever, though, if Clark is lost for a game (though regular-season techs do not carry over to the playoffs).

Sunday, after expounding on the joys of competitive trick or treating, Clark broke the WNBA’s single-season rookie scoring mark, previously held by Seimone Augustus of the Minnesota Lynx. Coincidentally, Clark, who grew up a fan of the Lynx in the neighboring state, said Augustus was the first women’s pro player she ever met.

“I got my picture with her on my dad’s little phone,” Clark said. “It was maybe like a BlackBerry back in the day. I vividly remember it.”

Clark averages 19.5 points per game with Thursday’s game at the Washington Mystics the Fever’s last regular-season game. A couple of days ago, Clark broke the league’s rookie record for most assists in a season. She has 329 for an average of 8.4 per game.

If the WNBA makes candy collecting an official statistic, Clark will certainly go after that prize.

The real question, as Halloween approaches Oct. 31, quickly following the WNBA season, is how many little girls in Indiana will be ringing doorbells wearing those same Caitlin Clark No. 22 Fever jerseys they displayed in the stands during games? And that’s no joke.