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Get to know more about Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark's boyfriend and how he reacted to the shoulder shot seen around the world.
Published on June 3, 2024
3 min read
Just about everyone these days has heard the name Caitlin Clark. She was a superstar with the Iowa Hawkeyes and is regarded as one of the greatest college basketball players of all time.
The NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer is credited with helping make the sport more popular with what’s known as the “Caitlin Clark effect.” During her senior year, all of the Hawkeyes home games sold out and each team that hosted Iowa set an attendance record. Moreover, Clark’s final three games in the NCAA tournament broke the women’s college basketball viewership record.
In April 2024, Clark was selected by the Indiana Fever with the first overall pick in the WNBA Draft. She has elevated the sport just like she did for women’s college basketball as the WNBA is smashing viewership records when the Fever play. Now, fans want to know more about Clark’s life off the court with her boyfriend Connor McCaffery.
When Clark and McCaffery started dating
Clark was spotted with her beau for the first time in April 2023 taking in a Denver Nuggets-Minnesota Timberwolves game.
A few months later in August, they became Instagram official when Clark posted three snaps of them on a boat together with the caption, “Best end to summer.”
Since then, they’ve shared several snaps and tributes to each other on social media including on Clark’s 22nd birthday when McCaffery wrote: “Happy Birthday 22. Wish I was there to celebrate with you — you deserve the best day. Golden Bday / T Swift year will be the best yet. With all that you’ve already accomplished, there is so much more in store for you and your special self. I admire you in every way and I love you.”
McCaffery is a former athlete and became an NBA coach
(L): Caitlyn Clark in the court in a game against the Los Angeles Sparks | Justin Casterline/Getty Images, (R): Connor McCaffery taking a foul shot in a game against the Maryland Terrapins | Mitchell Layton/Getty Images
Like Clark, McCaffery played collegiate sports for the Hawkeyes. He was a standout baseball player at the school for a couple of seasons and joined the Iowa men’s basketball team, which his father Fran coaches, in 2017.
McCaffery and his family are well known at the university as he was named a five-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, three-time NABC Honors Court, two-time Academic All-District First Team, two-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, and his dad is the program’s second-all-time winningest coach.
McCaffery decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and in May 2023, accepted a job in the NBA as an assistant on the Indiana Pacers coaching staff. However, McCafferey’s mother, Margaret, isn’t completely over the moon about his career choice.
“It’s excruciating to watch my husband,” she told Sports Illustrated. “I don’t anticipate it will be way better watching my son. There are great things about (coaching) and tough things about it. I look forward to him discovering all of that. And we’ll be there to support him no matter what he does.”
McCaffery subtly responds after the shoulder shot Chennedy Carter gave his girlfriend
People can’t stop talking about the shoulder shot Clark took from Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter on June 2, 2024. During the game, the referees called it an away-from-the-ball foul. But after the game, it was reviewed and upgraded to a flagrant 1 violation.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” Clark said following the contest. “It is what it is. It’s a physical game. Go make the free throw and execute on offense, and I feel like that’s kind of what we did.”
It seems like everyone weighed in on what happened, including McCaffery, who liked some posts urging the Fever to bring in an enforcer to protect Clark. The posts on X read: “Fever need to sign the WNBA version of James Johnson,” and “Tyrese [Haliburton] had a finger laid on him once and the Pacers called up James Johnson. The Fever gotta call up somebody to take care of business.”
