In 2025, a groin injury limited Caitlin Clark to just 13 games for the entire WNBA season. Yet, despite spending most of her time on the sidelines, Clark picked up wins off the court from coaching an All-Star team to topping Steph Curry and LeBron James in trading card sales.

So it's no surprise that podcast host Telfair Tong asked if basketball ever felt hard for her or if she just felt naturally destined to succeed.

However, Caitlin Clark revealed that success never came easy. “Honestly, I feel like there's a lot of challenging moments throughout my career. I probably always had a lot of natural skill, but I also wanted to get a lot better at it,” Clark said on the podcast.

Even with three youth gold medals, a FIBA U19 MVP, and a record-breaking rookie WNBA season, she’s always been pushing herself.

She added, “That's probably when I felt the most challenged, whether it was a hard workout or a bad game.” She knows this firsthand. During that tough June 22 loss against the Aces, Clark had a 19-point, 10-assist double-double but hit just 1 out of 10 three-pointer attempts.

“You find ways to challenge yourself in those moments,” she added. However, all that hard work is paying off as the WNBA star is marching toward another milestone.

Nike kicked off Caitlin Clark's ad campaign

CC had signed a landmark, eight-year, $28 million Nike deal in 2024. Now, a year later, on Christmas, the long-awaited signature shoe campaign started with a commercial.

The ad starts with a girl in her driveway challenging Clar, before several stars, including the Kelce brothers, rapper Travis Scott, comedian Michael Che, and others make their cameos.

Nike had already unveiled Caitlin Clark's logo on August 25, 2025. Fans at the Fever’s August 26 game even got white T-shirts with the logo. Now, Nike is building up the shoe launch.

"To me, this is more than just a logo, it's a dream come true," Clark said. When the kicks finally launch in Spring 2026, CC will become the third active player in the WNBA to have a signature shoe, joining A’ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu.

Written by

Ishika Ghosh

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi