NEW YORK — So you’re new to the WNBA, and you’re surprised that Caitlin Clark hasn’t been an immediate MVP-candidate scorer in the first week of her professional career. Here’s something for you to ponder.

It’s not just that Clark is a rookie stepping up from the college game to the top women’s basketball league on the planet. It’s not even just the physicality that naturally comes with the pros.

It’s that Clark is 22, and the Liberty’s chief defender on her over the last two games, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, is 30. Kayla Thornton and Courtney Vandersloot, who took turns at other times, are 31 and 35.

That age gap can’t be overstated as Clark starts her pro career with two games each against the veteran-laden Liberty and Connecticut Sun. The first three are in the books, and they’ve been sizable losses.

» READ MORE: Five WNBA storylines to watch this year, from Caitlin Clark to expansion

“This is what you signed up for, this is best of the best,” Clark said Saturday as she faced the Liberty for the second time. “The physicality, I think the way teams are guarding — you go back and watch the film, and I’m stepped way away from the play and I’m still getting face guards.”

It was there again Saturday in New York’s 91-80 win at the Barclays Center. All five Liberty starters scored in double figures, led by Breanna Stewart’s 24 points and Jonquel Jones’ 14. Stewart also had four steals and three blocks, and Jones had 12 rebounds and five assists.

So if you tuned in to the national TV broadcast on ABC only to see Clark, hopefully you ended up appreciating the Liberty’s excellence. But you also definitely got what you came for, as Clark shone with 22 points, eight assists, and six rebounds.

She hit three of her first four three-point attempts and a trademark 30-footer in the third quarter.

» READ MORE: Dawn Staley knows best that Caitlin Clark’s greatest days will come as a pro

A history lesson

It also was what a significant portion of the sellout crowd of 17,735 — which put a WNBA record $2 million of ticket revenue in the Liberty’s coffers — wanted to see. But it was an overwhelmingly pro-Liberty crowd, proving there’s still lots of energy from last season’s run to the team’s first Finals appearance since 2002.

When Clark was introduced in Indiana’s starting lineup, there were audible boos amid the cheers. When Laney-Hamilton and Stewart drove with the ball in the first quarter and knocked Clark flat, the fans were equally feisty.

Still, it’s clear that Clark is on her way.

» READ MORE: North Philly’s Kahleah Copper settles in with the Phoenix Mercury — and with Natasha Cloud as a teammate

New York coach Sandy Brondello recalled how Las Vegas’ Kelsey Plum, who held multiple NCAA Division I women’s scoring records before Clark broke them at Iowa, needed time to adjust. Now, Plum is a two-time reigning WNBA champion with the Aces, who host the Fever next Saturday (9 p.m., NBA TV).

Four years later, Sabrina Ionescu came out of Oregon with heaps of hype but endured a rocky start as a pro. Now she’s a much better team player, not just a big-time scorer.

“It’s a history. It’s not just the person,” Brondello said.

» READ MORE: The WNBA is expanding to Toronto. What does that mean for Philly? (Nothing, honestly.)

Respect already earned

The rest of the league knows how good Clark can be. That’s no surprise, either, because good players always know when they see other good players.

“Obviously, she’s a knockdown shooter, and she has that range,” Stewart said. “When you come into this league and you’re a No. 1 pick, everyone’s going to know where you are on the court at all times. She’s looking to make the pocket pass, and that’s going to be the growth of this team over the season: figuring out what the right spots are, depending on what defenses are going to do.”

By the way, if you’re one of those newcomers, let’s make sure you know about Stewart. Now in her ninth year as a pro, she’s got two WNBA championships, two MVPs (including last year), two Defensive Player of the Year awards, five All-Star honors, five all-WNBA honors, and two Olympic golds. And it all started with a historic 4-for-4 sweep of national titles at Connecticut.

» READ MORE: There’s a Philadelphia WNBA expansion bid, but no one’s saying who’s involved

“I think that [for] us up here, it’s respect,” Stewart said. “Obviously, we know she’s a great player and [are] just trying to do whatever we can to make it tough.”

Jones really nailed it when she talked about all the hype Clark has gotten.

“I think the media needs to give her a little bit of grace and time to develop into a player‚” said the 2021 MVP and four-time All-Star who was just as essential as Stewart to the Liberty making last year’s Finals.

“She’s learning every game as she’s out there, and obviously her impact on this league is going to be tremendous and only grow as she matures,” Jones continued. “But just give her some time, man.”

» READ MORE: The WNBA will begin full-time charter flights this season

A few minutes after saying that, Jones and Stewart were asked what advice they’d give to their rookie selves in hindsight. Stewart’s answer should resonate loudly as Clark grows.

“My first two years we lost, like, a lot,” she said. “Not getting used to losing, but understanding how to navigate that and instead of just being completely frustrated, taking whatever I can and learning from it. … This is the best league in the world, and we wouldn’t be here, being our best, if it wasn’t that.”

That was one more reminder of what might be the biggest truth of all here. The bar for Clark to reach is set by the rest of the WNBA’s players, not the rest of us. We’ll all know when she gets there, but for now, it’s enough that she’s on her way.

Have you ever eaten a fiddlehead? It’s a baby fern, some say it tastes like asparagus or broccoli. It’s an earthy, deep-forest, furled green that’s sure to freak out the kid expecting corn. It’s finally getting warm enough to forage, but I heard a troubling rumor about out of state foragers coming into Connecticut.

While I was out walking my dog along the Naugatuck River, I bumped into a young couple from Harwinton who were out looking for any fiddleheads that escaped view. From what they told me, Connecticut is rife with foragers from Boston, who illegally wipe out fields of our fiddleheads to sell to the Northern New Englanders. Eastern Connecticut, East of the Connecticut River near East Hampton is where they used to try to find a few bags in previous seasons, but post-pandemic they’ve had greater success in Litchfield County near Burlington and Nassahegon State Forest.

Can you forage for fiddleheads in Connecticut? Why yes, but like everywhere else in this world, make sure it’s public, not private property, or ask permission. Here’s a few tips on foraging fiddleheads from CBC Life

According to Outdoorapothecary.com, the Ostrich Fern is most common found here, and each plant should have 5-7 fronds growing near the base. Fiddleheads prefer cool weather, like we’ve had so far in Connecticut 2024, and you’ll find them in deep, rich soil on wet, swampy grounds near stream, creeks and the Naugatuck, Housatonic, and Connecticut River. Most importantly, forage responsibly, never take more than what you need.

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UNCASVILLE — The Connecticut Sun will take a commercial flight to face the Indiana Fever for their first road game of the season on Monday amid the WNBA’s clunky rollout of a charter travel program for the 2024 season.

The Fever and rookie superstar Caitlin Clark flew to Connecticut on a chartered plane for the season opener at Mohegan Sun Arena on Tuesday. The Minnesota Lynx also took a charter flight for their first game against the Seattle Storm, but all other teams flew commercially for their openers. All 12 teams are expected to operate with full-time charter travel beginning Tuesday — the day after the Sun play in Indianapolis.

The WNBA originally unveiled plans to institute full-time charters this season on May 9, five days before the first regular-season games. It announced that the program would be “phased in beginning with the start of the 2024 regular season.” Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said charter travel would launch “as soon as we can get planes in places,” but there was little further explanation. WNBA players held a town hall with Engelbert on Monday after it became clear that charter flights would begin immediately, but not for all road trips.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Engelbert told players the WNBA was prioritizing charter for trips that are “crossing multiple time zones or flights that usually require a connection.” Bradley International Airport, where the Sun typically travel from, does not offer any nonstop flights to Indianapolis on any airline.

“Yeah that’s disappointing certainly, considering not just our place to fly in and out of, but us to Indiana is almost the worst trip in the world,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “I made that a lot of times on the other end, so I know that from experience, and certainly understand that it’s a tough one, so I’m disappointed.”

A WNBA spokesperson said the league will not comment on case-by-case travel situations.

Chartered air travel — or lack thereof — has long been a spot of contention between the league and its players. All 12 WNBA teams traveled to regular-season games on commercial flights under the current collective bargaining agreement last year, and the New York Liberty were fined $500,000 in 2022 for using charter flights provided by owners Joe and Clara Tsai.

Tensions spiked again in 2023 when Brittney Griner returned to the Phoenix Mercury after a highly publicized 10-month detainment in Russia. Griner was harassed by a right-wing social media personality at the Dallas airport while the Mercury were flying commercially for a game against the Wings last season, but only Griner was allowed to fly charter for the rest of the year. The league introduced charter flights for all playoff games in 2023, but Engelbert said as recently as the WNBA Draft on April 15 that the league was waiting for “the right financial position” to implement a full-time program.

That financial position apparently came sooner than expected with the arrival of one of the most popular rookie classes in WNBA history. Social media erupted with safety concerns for Clark over a viral video of her at the airport for the Indiana Fever’s preseason game, and Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese is the most-followed active player in the league on Instagram with an audience of more than 3.1 million.