PHOENIX — Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark bounded up the stairs to the interview podium following Saturday night’s WNBA All-Star Game, exclaiming, “I’m on vacation!” As she sat down, grinning from ear to ear, she told media members, “Alright, last time for a month, get your questions in.”

Clark was giddy throughout the entire 6-minute availability, answering questions thoroughly and adding in some jokes. The entire time she was on the podium, though, she was thinking about one thing: This was her last obligation before she was officially on her first break from basketball in nearly a year.

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Clark, who wasn’t picked for Team USA in the upcoming Paris Olympics, will now get a break until the Fever return Aug. 16.

While she didn’t say where she was going on vacation, she rejoiced at not having to see a basketball court for at least a little while.

“I honestly can’t wait to not touch a basketball for a while,” Clark said, laughing. “I’ve shot too many times in the past year.”

After those six minutes were over, she jumped out of her seat, told everyone to “have a nice month!” and quickly made her way down the stairs.

She finally has a break. A well-deserved one, at that.

“I’m loving that she’s going to get a breather and get some rest, just for our push after this Olympic break,” Fever coach Christie Sides said Wednesday. “I think it’s great for her, she’s just been going so hard for quite some time now, and this is just going to help her so much just to kind of decompress.”

Clark had been playing high-level basketball non-stop dating back to September 2023, when her Iowa Hawkeyes starting prepping for the 2023-24 college season. She went through five months of the season and played the highest number of games possible, reaching the 2024 national championship game.

A week later, Clark was drafted to the Fever. Less than a month after she played her last college game with the Hawkeyes, she was in training camp to prepare for the beginning of her rookie season.

Especially with the rookie’s outward-facing fame, she’s easily recognized. She needs to be on all the time. Physically, mentally and emotionally, it has been nonstop for the Hawkeye-turned-Fever star. And she knows she needs time to unwind.

“I think it’s hard as a professional athlete at times, like people do always realize I feel like an individual just like all of you,” Clark said. “I’m just the same human. I go about my same daily life, I do all the things that you do, I just play basketball on top of that … everybody’s looking at you to perform, and everybody’s gonna want you to do this and be that, you have to be at your best every single day, and that’s just one side of it.”

Really, it’s been an emotionally-draining first half of the season for most of the Fever players. They have been under increased scrutiny this season, with more fans and media than ever covering the Indiana team. The Fever’s opening schedule, 11 games in 20 days, didn’t help either. The condensed schedule gave a young Indiana team minimal time to practice, leading to a 2-9 record to start the season.

During that stretch, there were people on social media analyzing the body language of Clark, her new teammates and Sides. People called for Sides to be fired, called for other players to be traded and called for Clark to get into a “better situation.”

Since that opening stretch, the Fever have gone 9-6 for an 11-15 record at the break. It puts the Fever firmly in playoff position, sitting in seventh in the league.

And after a 26-game push, everyone needs time to decompress.

“What these guys have endured from 1-8, that start, against the best teams in the league, early back-to-backs, it was just tough,” Sides said. “It was tough on them, it was tough on all of us, and just the expectations, that was another game changer. It’s just that they kept showing up, trying to get better, even when we couldn’t practice, it was in video. Just the resiliency they’ve shown, I’m just so proud of them for that.”

Fever guard Lexie Hull said in a TikTok she and some of her teammates were heading to Mexico following their game against the Dallas Wings on Wednesday, but didn’t say who was joining her on the trip. The only Fever played that won’t have a break is Kristy Wallace, who is heading to the Olympics as part of Team Australia.

Clark, along with Fever second-year center Aliyah Boston and seventh-year guard Kelsey Mitchell, had to wait a few more days before officially starting their vacation. They had All-Star duties in Phoenix through Saturday night, culminating with a Team WNBA win, 117-109, over Team USA.

Now, they’re on vacation.

“I’m very excited,” Boston said following the game. “Very excited. I will be resting.”

Follow IndyStar Fever Insider Chloe Peterson on X at @chloepeterson67.