On Monday the WNBA named Caitlin Clark its rookie of the month, a sweet reward for the 22-year-old that couldn’t come at a tougher time.

Since entering the league mere weeks ago as the top overall pick, Clark has not only been under pressure due to the outsized expectations that have come with her immense collegiate star status; she’s had to do so while being guarded the length of the floor, running blindly into screens and losing nine of her first 11 games with the Indiana Fever, who have finished last in their conference for the last three seasons. Even though many close WNBA followers expected

Clark wouldn’t get by anywhere near as easily as she did at Iowa – not least former top pick Diana Taurasi, who a month ago warned, “reality is coming” – that hasn’t stopped Clark’s legion of fans from taking the slights against her personally and attributing them to a wider league conspiracy to cut down their shiny new meal ticket.

Case in point: a moment late in last Saturday’s game against the Chicago Sky, the much-anticipated rivalry game between Clark and former college nemesis Angel Reese that wound up dominating cable TV ratings. Clark was waiting to receive an inbounds pass when the Sky’s Chennedy Carter shoulder-checked her unawares, dropping the rookie like a bag of onions. Carter refused questions about the play after the game and Reese skipped out on her mandatory news conference in solidarity, resulting in four-figure fines for Reese and her team. That was enough to turn the already rickety discourse around Clark into a prickly, nonsensical pile.