Start with a pass across the court. Start with something almost no one else can see. Start with her feet just behind the logo, coming out of a trap and sinking a signature basket. Start with her scrambling past a defender, catching the ball and throwing it out of the corner, her body giving way on a shot that’s miraculously good enough to make up for all the mechanical rules it breaks.

Or realize that it doesn’t particularly matter where you start. That’s the beauty of Caitlin Clark: All roads lead to potential climaxes. (Each of the examples above and several more are from a game earlier this weekwhen Clark’s Indiana Fever defeated the Atlanta Dream 104-100 in overtime.)

As the WNBA’s regular season enters the home stretch, Clark is wrapping up a rookie season unlike any other. After a unique college career, she entered the league under the weight of enormous expectations and was often positioned not so much as a basketball player but as a cultural phenomenon in her own right. That dynamic came with intense scrutiny and corresponding coverage, including much of it from people and places that had previously shown little interest in women’s basketball—or women or basketball, for that matter. The cumulative effect could be staggering. And yet, she ultimately accomplished something that previously seemed all but impossible, given the context.

Clark played to live up to the hype.

The national debate surrounding the 22-year-old sometimes strayed so far from basketball that it felt completely disconnected from what she actually did on the court. At first, she was viewed primarily as a marketing engine or economic force. (And she has been both: The WNBA’s attendance, viewership and merchandise sales have soared, with Clark always at the center. The fever has experienced explosive growth in everything from tickets and jerseys to mascot bookings and beer sales.) And then she was discussed as a symbol in a dizzying series of culture wars, drawn time and again into discussions that had only tangential or nothing to do with her. What she herself actually said or did seemed to matter little here: the fire was over projections and loose abstractions. At least one book will be written about the impact of her summer. It’s hardly surprising that Clark will play her final regular season game on the road in Washington, DC, on September 19. MPs from both parties will use the game as a fundraiser.

But behind all the talk, of course, Clark was there. And on the other side of some initial growing pains –especially during a brutal opening phase for Indiana– she’s just become too good to ignore. Putting everything off the field aside for a moment, Clark has started to develop into the player she promised herself to be.

The core of it is still what made her so successful in college at Iowa. It’s her shooting range, yes, but it’s even more her vision and ability to convey. She’s not as annoyed by professional defenses as she was in her first weeks in the league. The same traps and blitzes that hampered her early on aren’t proving quite as effective. Clark returned to the court after the Olympic break significantly stronger and smarter. The result is a historically strong offensive season: No one has ever scored as many points while dishing out as many assists. No player in WNBA history has ever averaged 15 points and eight assists per game in a season. (Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas came very close last year with 15.5 and 7.9, respectively.) Yet now Clark is comfortably surpassing that at 19.1 and 8.4, positioning herself for not just rookie records but league records as well. She could set the season record for assists as early as Friday.

That earned him the chance to play into October. Of course, that required a lot more from Indiana than just Clark.

A Fever team that originally seemed stiff and uncoordinated has found its identity in recent weeks. They’ve picked up the tempo and largely abandoned their reliance on forced set pieces. Kelsey Mitchell is playing the best basketball of her career. Aliyah Boston, the 2023 Rookie of the Year, has become more assertive in the box and found her chemistry with Clark. Head coach Christie Sides has found rotations that work — more of Lexie Hull, who has established herself on the wing, less of Kristy Wallace — and has shown a greater willingness to make adjustments. And a key part of that growth for the group across the board has been Clark at point guard, who has prepared everyone to play their best.

The backcourt duo Clark and Mitchell have recently been considered one of the best in the WNBA.

“Me and Caitlin and our group, I think we just found a way,” Mitchell told the Related Press earlier this month. “I think our pace is what sets us apart from a lot of other teams. Because we want to move the ball down the field at such a high pace. And I think the way we play makes our games flourish even more.”

This puts the Fever in the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The path out of the first round will be difficult. (That path is either through Minnesota or Connecticut – both strong teams that easily handled Indiana this year.) But it’s remarkable that such potential exists at all, especially considering how this group looked in the first few weeks of the season when it started 3-10.

“I feel like any team that goes through adversity comes together, and with our schedule at the beginning, we were definitely forced to build that pretty quickly,” said Lexie Hull S.I. in June. “Hopefully at the end of the season we can look back at this beginning and say: This prepared us for the end… You’re forced to kind of block out the noise. Everyone has an opinion. And that’s why we try not to let that happen, but to stay strong together and keep our circle really tight.”

The noise has only increased in the months since. But the level of performance at center has also increased. The question of whether Clark’s season was perhaps the best rookie season ever is a tricky one – Candace Parker has an unassailable place in the record books as the only player to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same year, but given the historic play of Las Vegas Aces forward and presumptive MVP A’ja Wilson, that fate is unlikely for Clark. There have been previous rookies who scored more points (Seimone Augustus) and certainly some who were far better defenders (Tamika Catchings). Clark has a few more games to play to prove her abilities. But she’s already put together a rookie season that feels unique in its appeal.

Clark has made the adjustment. Now it’s up to everyone else to adjust to Clark.