Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark made WNBA history Thursday evening, setting a new league record as the quickest player ever to accumulate 500 career assists during the team’s matchup against the Golden State Valkyries in San Francisco.
The 24-year-old guard achieved this historic milestone in just her 59th professional game.
Clark began Thursday’s contest with 497 assists to her name, needing only three more to break the record. Those three crucial assists came rapidly during the second quarter of play. First, she set up Raven Johnson and Myisha Hines-Allen for easy scoring opportunities near the basket. Then, Clark made a long pass from her chest position down the court to Sophie Cunningham, who was running ahead for a fast-break score that brought Indiana within five points at 37-32.
Earlier in the current season, Clark also achieved another significant milestone by surpassing 1,000 career points. Her combination of reaching both 1,000 points and 500 assists makes her by far the most rapid WNBA player to accomplish both feats. The previous record holder for fastest to 500 assists was Sue Bird, who needed 82 games to reach that number.
