There’s a point that most overlook – a competition should be healthy. While many athletes battle day in and day out against each other, they forget that at the end of the day, they are humans. They have the same wants and desires to win as any other athlete. However, in a rare case when the Las Vegas Aces battled it out against the Indiana Fever on Tuesday, the Aces star Jackie Young set an example for every player to follow. And that had the Aces’ head coach Becky Hammon proud.
Hammon posted a reel of the same on her social media networking platform Instagram and looked to be quite in awe of her mentee Young. Young was trying to screen Caitlin Clark who was breaking free in transitional offense. However, Clark stumbled with the ball and Young made sure she didn’t attack Clark at that point. The ball went outside the court and in the meantime, the 26-year-old star had a quick friendly chat with Clark while the two tied their laces to gear up for the remaining match.
Hammon while sharing the video of the same captioned it as “#proud #mudita #jackieBOSSMOVES #mygirlgetsIT” which certainly demonstrated her happiness that Young had an empathetic side to her and she just didn’t try to outdo Clark at her lowest.
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A post shared by Becky Hammon (@officialbeckyhammon)
Meanwhile, the game had a record-breaking attendance of 20,366 fans at the T-Mobile Arena. Surely, a lot of followers had come to watch Clark, who scored 13 points in the game. Similarly, Young added 15 points. But the match was noteworthy for moments like these which showed that the two players were friends with each other. And fans who saw the reel also had a reaction to the same.
Fans applaud Jackie Young’s behavior towards Caitlin Clark
“A lot more women in the W should be like Jackie,” a fan commented. The fan might be pointing out that there is a narrative in the W against Clark. She has been pushed a lot of times and also there are opponents like Chennedy Carter and Angel Reese who haven’t been all smooth with her. Hopefully, watching Young’s kindness other fans too will start behaving with grace.
“Jackie young has become one of my favorite players this year!😍,” another user stated. The netizen must have been influenced by Young’s exceptional display in the WNBA. She has scored 18.7 points per game with 4.6 rebounds per game and 5.7 assists. Therefore, Young has performed well even in the stats.
“It’s crazy that camera was right there. Her body would do what her mind wanted. Been there! Jackie & Aces are class acts!,” another admirer commented. The user was pointing to the fact that in the heat of the moment, Young didn’t go to grab the ball but instead made sure Clark was alright when she fell. And this certainly needed to be captured by the camera as an example for players.
“A reflection of their fearless leader,” one user also deflected the kind act to leaders such as A’ja Wilson. And sure the credit goes to the entire team management and the ecosystem since Young left on an opportunity of a steal and instead chose to not attack Clark at that time.
“Just another reason I follow the Aces!!,” one netizen shared. The game between the Aces and the Fever broke all records as it had 20,366 fans attending the T-Mobile Arena. Plus, the Aces also became the first WNBA team to have all its regular season home games sold out.
