An expedition of joy and basketball
Taking new fans on a road trip to see Caitlin Clark play was a chance to see the game through different eyes
“I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen. I’ve seen Caitlin Clark. I can die happy now.”
- One of my friends after the Indiana Fever exhibition game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday.
When I was a little girl, our very cool neighbor Darlene took my sisters and me to a David Cassidy concert. Years later, I took my goddaughter to see NSYNC in Minneapolis, where I was living at the time. Both the girl and the internet were young enough that by living in Des Moines, she would have been none the wiser that the concert was even happening. But when I visited Des Moines, I stayed with my friends in their daughter’s room that was plastered with NSYNC posters just as mine had once been with posters of David Cassidy and the Partridge Family. So I understood.
“Why would you do this?” my friend said incredulously when I offered to take his daughter to see NSYNC for her birthday.
“Because Darlene Reeson took me and my sisters to see David Cassidy in concert when I was 10 years old and I am paying back the universe,” I responded.
I kind of felt the same way on Sunday when I went with three friends – including the NSYNC fan’s mother – to see Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday.
Those three friends total more than 100 years of friendship in my life – holidays together, vacations together, working together and big life moments together but there was one thing we had never, ever done together: Go to a basketball game.
It wasn’t because of that old canard about busy schedules. No, there would have been no opportunity to do so because until recently they had absolutely no interest. Mostly, except for one who went to Baylor and follows their teams, they simply didn’t much care about the game - men or women. Or sports, for that matter.
Why now?
I really don’t have to tell you, do I?
Yes, on Sunday, they got to see their NSYNC in yellow sneakers: Caitlin Clark. That the Fever beat the Brazilian National Team 108-44 was but a mere afterthought when the whole point for nearly everyone in the sold-out arena was to see Clark play there once again.
And for me, nothing could have been more fun than to take three newly obsessed people who had never experienced any of this before along for the ride. It was an expedition as much as an experience and all week long I was sending them emails like, “This is your Basketball Sherpa: Carver-Hawkeye is really warm. Wear layers.” Or “This is your Basketball Sherpa. There’s a clear bag policy; I have a couple if anyone needs one.” As we made the trek from Des Moines, I mentioned that hitting the rest stop at Tiffin just outside Iowa City was a better idea than waiting in the women’s bathroom line at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
For as big of a role as sports have played in my life, I have a lot of friends who don’t know the first thing about them. One once apologized for that and I said, “Don’t worry about it; I don’t know what you do all day at work.” She felt much better about that.
Even so, having sports-disconnected friends has often been entertaining. During a game of Scattergories with my friends in my Register sports writer days, the topic for one round was “sports figure” and the letter was J. Every one of them gave “Jane Burns” as an answer because they couldn’t think of anyone in sports.
“Not even Dr. J?” I said in disbelief.
Of course I let them have the point. Mostly because I scored two with Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
At Carver-Hawkeye on Sunday, I knew what I was working with and that was part of the fun. As we had a little picnic outside before tipoff (something that really wouldn’t work in January), I pointed out Kinnick Stadium, the children’s hospital where patients and families can see the Iowa Wave, the baseball stadium next door
Once inside, I could point out where press row is or show where the likes of Jason Sudekis and David Letterman once sat. I answered questions about the three-point line. I pointed out the word “Mediacom” on the court and told one friend, “That’s the logo. As in THE logo. As in a logo 3.” And of course pointed out the little 22 that marks the spot where Caitlin Clark shot from to break the NCAA scoring record in early 2024.
Then, as if she did it just for my friends, the real 22 made a glorious 36-foot shot just from that spot. I could not have been more thrilled for my companions.
The women’s basketball ascendence has become, for me, like being a parent or an aunt or uncle or older sibling and getting the chance point out details about the thing you love so much to someone for whom it’s all brand new. And like with kids, they ask a question that catches you off guard because something is so familiar to you that you are almost at a loss to explain it.
As I sat next to my friend Betsy, I casually mentioned that it was no guarantee that one of the players would be on the team this season. This confused her momentarily. So I explained that that’s what the preseason is for: to look at all the players on the team right now and whittle it down to 12 before the season starts.
“How do you make the team?” she said.
A legit question, to be sure, but one I’d never explained to anyone before.
I thought for a moment and replied, “Play well. Impress the coaches. Find something you can do that no one else can do. Fill a need. Learn the playbook. Don’t be an a**hole.”
You can use more colorful language when you don’t have to explain it to kids.
My friends are more knowledgeable now, enough so that they all noticed how quick this game was – it wasn’t close so there were few timeouts, no intentional fouls, no - as one of my friends put it - “minute that takes 15 minutes.”
They likely don’t need their sherpa anymore, my work here is done. And for one gorgeous spring day, I got to experience one of the things I love most – women’s basketball – with forever friends who have come to love it, too.
At long last, it’s nice to be NSYNC.
Jane Burns is a former sports and features writer for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications and websites. She’s a past winner of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Mel Greenberg Award for her coverage of women’s basketball. Over the course of her career she’s covered pretty much everything, which is why her as-yet-to-be-written memoir will be called “Cheese and Basketball: Stories From a Reporter Who Has Covered Everything.” She also knows *NSYNC uses an asterisk before their name but figured that might confuse readers and the band hasn’t been together since 2004 anyway.
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What a fun story, Jane!
Great column, Jane! Has an arena full of people ever been so united in joy over a game that meant so little? Even the opposing players and coaches were happy -- thrilled is a better description -- asking for (and getting) their own photos with Caitlyn Clark. What a day! You captured it so well.