Kate Martin shares hilarious first impression of Caitlin Clark in recent interview

After being drafted in 2024, both Kate Martin and Caitlin Clark have had pretty different paths to their second respective years in the WNBA. Martin is a key piece to the Golden State Valkyries' bench, while Clark is one of the biggest names in the league overall and the Indiana Fever's star guard.

Both still share a ton of love for one another as competitors and friends given their many years playing together at Iowa with the Hawkeyes. While they haven't squared off against each other just yet this season - the Fever play the Valkyries on June 19 - it's obvious that they're still close.

That was made even clearer on one of Sue Bird's newest episodes of her podcast "Bird's Eye View," where Martin recently sat down with the legendary WNBA point guard to discuss her time playing with Clark in college. And, she shared a hilarious first impression of Clark when she first joined the Hawkeyes program.

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"I remember I heard about this 'Caitlin Clark' and I was watching videos just, like, having 40 points, averaging a million in high school. And I was like, 'oh, this girl thinks she's gonna come here and rule the world, you know, like, whatever.' And then she did come in right away and ruled the world! And I was like, alright, here we go!," said Martin to Bird about when she first learned about Clark coming over to Iowa.

She added, "I remember the summer before, she was doing things I had never seen anyone do before. And as a freshman to come in and have that kind of confidence, like, not everybody has that. I was like 'oh, I haven't really seen anything like this.' So, we knew she was going to be outstanding."

Martin shares thoughts on Clark's work ethic, explosiveness in new interview

Martin went on to talk to Bird about the work ethic that she saw out of Clark, saying she was "in the gym" all the time while at Iowa, while also always going about her basketball business with "excellence."

Martin added, "It wasn't like 'oh, I'm just going to go through the motions.' It was like, 'no, I'm here to kick your butt.' And every single drill, every single practice, it was like, if you're across from me, you're my enemy. She had that next level mindset."