MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Caitlin Clark was ruled out of the WNBA Commissioner's Cup final on Tuesday with a strained groin, her third straight absence for the Indiana Fever.
The Fever announced on their pregame injury report that Clark would sit against the Minnesota Lynx in the championship game of the league's in-season tournament. The game does not count toward the regular-season standings.
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Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark reacts during the first half in a WNBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Sparks, Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Seattle Storm guard Erica Wheeler looks on as Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) falls while reaching for the ball during the second half of a WNBA basketball game Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark eats Goldfish crackers during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings Friday, June 27, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Indiana Fever players, from left, Sydney Colson, Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark react on the bench during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings Friday, June 27, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
“She’s making progress,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “Making progress and feeling good are two different things. We want to make sure that she feels good. We want to make sure that she’s confident. We want to make sure that we’re not putting her in a position to have any setbacks.”
Clark, the first overall pick in the 2024 draft and one of the two captains selected for the WNBA All-Star Game later this month, never missed a game in college at Iowa or with the Fever as a rookie. A strained quadriceps earlier this season kept her out for five games.
The game against the league-leading Lynx was another high-profile matchup Clark's absence put a bit of a damper on. She missed Indiana's game on Friday at Dallas that would have pitted her against Wings rookie Paige Bueckers and featured the top picks of the last two drafts.
“Caitlin has a lot of gravity — she’s an amazing player,” said Minnesota's Napheesa Collier, the other captain selected for this year's All-Star Game. “They have a lot of really good players, so not by any means is it going to be an easy game. It’s still going to be a really hard fight.”
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Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark reacts during the first half in a WNBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Sparks, Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Seattle Storm guard Erica Wheeler looks on as Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) falls while reaching for the ball during the second half of a WNBA basketball game Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark eats Goldfish crackers during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings Friday, June 27, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Indiana Fever players, from left, Sydney Colson, Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark react on the bench during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings Friday, June 27, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ahn Sung-ki, one of South Korean cinema’s biggest stars whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname “The Nation’s Actor,” died Monday. He was 74.
Ahn, who had suffered blood cancer for years, was pronounced dead at Seoul's Soonchunhyang University Hospital, his agency, the Artist Company, and hospital officials said.
“We feel deep sorrow at the sudden, sad news, pray for the eternal rest of the deceased and offer our heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family members," the Artist Company said in a statement.
President Lee Jae Myung issued a condolence message saying Ahn provided many people with comfort, joy and time for reflection. “I already miss his warm smile and gentle voice,” Lee wrote on Facebook.
Born to a filmmaker in the southeastern city of Daegu in 1952, Ahn made his debut as a child actor in the movie “The Twilight Train” in 1957. He subsequently appeared in about 70 movies as a child actor before he left the film industry to live an ordinary life.
In 1970, Ahn entered Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies as a Vietnamese major. Ahn said he graduated with top honors but failed to land jobs at big companies, who likely saw his Vietnamese major largely useless after a communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.
Ahn returned to the film industry in 1977 believing he could still excel in acting. In 1980, he rose to fame for his lead role in Lee Jang-ho’s “Good, Windy Days,” a hit coming-of-age movie about the struggle of working-class men from rural areas during the country’s rapid rise. Ahn won the best new actor award in the prestigious Grand Bell Awards, the Korean version of the Academy Awards.
He later starred in a series of highly successful and critically acclaimed movies, sweeping best actor awards and becoming arguably the country’s most popular actor in much of the 1980-90s.
Some of his memorable roles included a Buddhist monk in 1981’s “Mandara,” a beggar in 1984’s “Whale Hunting,” a Vietnam War veteran-turned-novelist in 1992’s “White Badge,” a corrupt police officer in 1993’s “Two Cops,” a murderer in 1999’s “No Where To Hide,” a special forces trainer in 2003’s “Silmido” and a devoted celebrity manager in 2006’s “Radio Star.”
Ahn had collected dozens of trophies in major movie awards in South Korea, including winning the Grand Bell Awards for best actor five times, an achievement no other South Korean actors have matched yet.
Ahn built up an image as a humble, trustworthy and family-oriented celebrity who avoided major scandals and maintained a quiet, stable personal life. Past public surveys chose Ahn as South Korea’s most beloved actor and deserving of the nickname “The Nation’s Actor.”
Ahn said he earlier felt confined with his “The Nation's Actor” labeling but eventually thought that led him down the right path. In recent years, local media has given other stars similar honorable nicknames, but Ahn was apparently the first South Korean actor who was dubbed “The Nation's Actor.”
“I felt I should do something that could match that title. But I think that has eventually guided me on a good direction,” Ahn said in an interview with Yonhap news agency in 2023.
In media interviews, Ahn couldn’t choose what his favorite movie was, but said that his role as a dedicated, hardworking manger for a washed-up rock singer played by Park Jung-hoon resembled himself in real life the most.
Ahn was also known for his reluctance to do love scenes. He said said he was too shy to act romantic scenes and sometimes asked directors to skip steamy scenes if they were only meant to add spice to movies.
“I don’t do well on acting like looking at someone who I don’t love with loving eyes and kissing really romantically. I feel shy and can’t express such emotions well,” Ahn said in an interview with the Shindonga magazine in 2007. “Simply, I’m clumsy on that. So I couldn’t star in such movies a lot. But ultimately, that was a right choice for me.”
Ahn is survived by his wife and their two sons. A mourning station at a Seoul hospital was to run until Friday.
FILE - South Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki smiles for a photo on the red carpet at the 56th Daejong Film Awards ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, June 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
FILE - South Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki attends an event as part of the 11th Pusan International Film Festival in Busan, South Korea, Oct. 13, 2006. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
