Caitlin Clark's experience at the women's World Cup has been a 'pinch-me moment' for the WNBA star

BERLIN (AP) — Caitlin Clark has been blown away by the enthusiasm from the international fan base turning out at the women’s FIBA World Cup and said the tournament is a fun respite from the “craziness” of the WNBA season.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Clark talked about her relationship with Angel Reese, how she has drawn inspiration from coach Mike Krzyzewski in pursuit of a team-first championship mindset and the growth of the international women’s game.

“I certainly do feel the pressure that there’s still so many people screaming my name. I look at it as we get to help advance the game globally,” Clark said. “This is my first time playing in Europe and getting to see how excited and passionate people are about the game here and where it can continue to go is is really, really cool.

“It’s maybe nice to get a little break of the craziness of the WNBA season,” Clark added, "but at the same time, I would never change anything, and I’m pretty used to it.”

Clark has been the epicenter of the women's game since leading Iowa to back-to-back NCAA championship games, one of which included a showdown with Reese. She also reiterated her feelings about her college rival, saying she appreciates Reese’s desire to win and her relentlessness on the court.

“We’re both fiery, fiery competitors and we want to win and it’s one of the things I really admire about her game,” Clark said. “She’s competitive and she has a tremendous motor, like she has one of the best motors in the league. She works just as hard as anybody on the court. So, it’s been fun to to be able to play with her.”

The glare on Clark in the WNBA has intensified with the Indiana Fever in contention to make a deep run in the playoffs now that she is healthy. At the World Cup fans are getting a preview of what they have clamored to see: Clark playing alongside some of the best players in the world.

The outcry was palpable when Clark was left off the US team that won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“I think she’s going to leave an incredible legacy. She certainly already has at this World Cup in particular," said Risa Isard, director of research and insights at women's sports marketing platform Parity. "The legacy of this entire new and next generation of women’s basketball players is really exciting. I mean the ceiling kind of does not exist.”

While Clark is looking forward to 2028, her immediate challenge is helping the U.S. win a fifth straight World Cup title — which adds a tinge more pressure.

“You don’t want to be the team that everybody talks about because you didn’t win,” Clark said. “You want to do what’s expected and that’s to win a gold medal. I think it would certainly help and hopefully it’s just a step in the direction of where I want to keep building and hopefully the goals that I want to achieve of hopefully playing in the Olympics in '28.”

Women's basketball's popularity is growing internationally and Clark takes great pride in being part of the growth. Being in Berlin with the cadre of U.S. stars, Clark's first experience has been somewhat eye-opening.

“When you get to see it up close and really understand the impact that you’re having and the way that the game’s been able to grow, that's special,” Clark said.

The Fever All-Star said that a fan came up to her before the USA's game against the Czech Republic and said that they traveled from Australia to watch her play.

"People are spending so much time and money, and people in surrounding European countries are coming here to be able to watch us, or get our signature or wear our jersey or try to get a photo. Sometimes you feel like that’s just the United States, but you’re coming to understand the game is really continuing to grow,” Clark said. “It is kind of a pinch-me moment to see.”

Like every player that dons the USA jersey, Clark understood she would have to assimilate into a star-studded cast. To help adjust to her role, Clark said she has watched videos online that featured Krzyzewski, the former USA Basketball men's coach, talking to the national team that featured Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and other stars.

The former Duke coach was saying how the only thing that matters is winning the gold. People wouldn't remember how many points a player would score, they would just ask if they won.

That resonated with Clark and the legacy she is building.

“You have to set everything that you want to achieve personally aside," Clark said. "At the end of the day, people don’t care about that if you have a gold medal hanging around your neck. So, that’s my goal and I think we have the group to do it.”

She averaged 7.6 points and 6.3 assists in the pool play games while coming off the bench. Her debut against China was a 14-point, 11-assist, zero turnovers effort.

Clark has struggled with her shot, going just 4-for-16 from behind the 3-point line.

“That’s normal for any shooter," U.S. coach Kara Lawson said of Clark's struggles. "They have stretches where you’re hot, stretches where you’re a little bit cold, but she provides a great playmaking aspect to our game.”

Clark entered the World Cup playing her best basketball of the season. Since the All-Star break, she's had 20 or more points in 10 of the 12 games. She also has had double-digit assists in seven of those games.

She doesn't have to do that on this team.

“Obviously there’s probably still a lot of pressure on me to perform at this is level, but I think that’s a great thing about USA basketball, it isn’t like the WNBA," Clark said. "You’re probably not going to come out here and score 30 and have 10 assists. That’s just not reality because of the talent we have.”

Clark is correct: fans remember gold medal winners and a title in Berlin would be a bookmark in the unfinished championship chapter of her résumé.

See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Caitlin Clark, of the United States, shoots over Czechia's Veronika Vorackova during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Czechia's Petra Holesinska guards Caitlin Clark, of the United States, during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Czechia's Eliska Joklova guards Caitlin Clark, of the United States, during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Caitlin Clark, of the United States, shoots during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

CAIRO (AP) — Rescuers in Yemen pulled more bodies from the rubble Wednesday of a prison run by Iran-backed Houthi rebels that was hit in a deadly airstrike earlier this week, as an escalation between the rebels and a Saudi-led coalition threatened Yemen's fragile ceasefire.

The renewed fighting is also threatening global oil shipments as the Houthis target shipping and oil infrastructure that’s helping keep oil flowing through the Red Sea while the U.S.-Iran war has throttled shipments through the key Strait of Hormuz on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula.

The prison in Hazm, the Jawf provincial capital, collapsed on Monday when coalition strikes hit the area, killing at least 23 people, including the four whose bodies were found on Wednesday.

It wasn't immediately known how many people were in the prison at the time of the strikes, which also left seven people injured.

Following the strike on Monday, the Houthis retaliated on Tuesday with attacks on southern Saudi cities. The coalition early Wednesday responded with more strikes on rebel-held areas. The Saudi-backed government forces advanced in the eastern part of Hazm on Wednesday, cutting off supply routes to the Houthis, the military’s media office said.

The rebels reported 48 airstrikes over 12 hours in the provinces of Jawf, Marib, Hodeida, Taiz, Bayda and Saada, the rebels’ stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.

Hassan Saboula, director of Jawf's civil defense agency, said a child was among the 23 killed on Monday and that rescue teams were still searching for seven missing from the attack.

The identities of those killed have yet to be determined, al-Masirah satellite news channel cited Saboula as saying. Among the seven injured was a woman who was visiting her husband, said Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry.

In a statement Wednesday, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed the prison strike was carried out by an F-15SA Saudi aircraft. He said the aircraft took off from King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, the kingdom's fifth-largest city, at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, hit the prison and returned to the base 15 minutes later.

The Saudi government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The rebels said they targeted the base on Tuesday as part of their strikes on several cities in southern Saudi Arabia.

Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014, when the Houthis descended from their northern stronghold and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee southward and then into exile in Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition entered the Yemen war the following year in an attempt to restore the government. The war has killed at least 150,000 people, according to U.N. estimates, and at times pushed the country to the brink of famine.

The escalation between the rebels and the coalition started when the Houthis attempted in July to fly a plane from Tehran, Iran's capital, to Sanaa, the rebel-controlled Yemeni capital, challenging a decade-long air and naval blockade by the coalition. The coalition struck the runway in Sanaa, preventing the flight from landing.

The Houthis have since targeted Saudi Arabia and attacked Saudi shipping in the Red Sea. On Tuesday, they hit several Saudi oil facilities in southern Saudi Arabia where some operations have since been temporarily suspended, according to the Saudi Energy Ministry. The kingdom sounded sirens multiple times on Wednesday across several southern Saudi cities, warning residents to take shelter for fear of potential attacks.

Also, the rebels have been attacking Saudi-allied government forces on multiple fronts within Yemen. However, government forces turned the tide earlier this month, striking Houthi positions on the Red Sea, on Yemen’s western coast.

Before the Jawf prison strike, the violence in Yemen killed at least 194 people between Aug. 23 and Sept. 5, and wounded over 880, according to the World Health Organization. More than 21,000 people have been displaced.

The escalation shattered a four-year truce that had largely halted the fighting in the civil war.

In another development, supporters of the now-dismantled separatist group in southern Yemen blocked a convoy of Gen. Taher al-Aqili, the defense minister of the internationally recognized government, in the province of Dhale, according to residents.

The separatists set fire to a number of vehicles, said residents Khaled Saleh and Hamoud Nasser. Security forces quickly dispersed the separatists, they said.

The Southern Transitional Council dissolved itself in January after weeks of clashes with government forces across southern Yemen. The STC was an umbrella organization for groups that seek to restore southern Yemen as an independent state. The group was backed by the United Arab Emirates.

People read a newspaper to follow the war news at a shop in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

FILE - A Houthi Shiite rebel mans a machine gun mounted on a military truck in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)