At one point during her answer, there was a chuckle that broke out, but Caitlin Clark, holding the microphone following her first WNBA win with the Indiana Fever, immediately said, “No, I’m being dead serious.”

Her last two months, she said, have “definitely been a whirlwind,” with a run to the national championship game with Iowa — where arenas were packed all year as the buzz surrounding Clark shifted from city to city — followed by a transition to the WNBA as the No. 1 overall pick and an 0-5 start that showed there’d still be an adjustment.

And while she “wouldn’t change it for the world,” that doesn’t mean it has been an easy stretch for Clark, who contributed 11 points and 10 rebounds — as well as a clutch 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter — to help the Fever defeat the Los Angeles Sparks, 78-73, on Friday.

“Honestly, I feel like I talk to the media more than I get to talk to my own family … which is really kind of sad, in a way,” Clark said, while noting that her statement wasn’t an exaggeration. “It’s a lot for somebody that’s 22 years old. It can be tough at times.”

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Clark, whose answer followed a question about Mental Health Awareness Month, has been the subject of plenty of conversations since the WNBA season began, with many floating their opinion on her transition to playing professionally and the scope of her role in the league’s exponential growth.

Earlier this week, after the Chicago Sky defeated the Liberty, Angel Reese appeared to reference, in a since-deleted post on X, that the growth of the league can be attributed to more than Clark — and “not just cause of one player on our charter flight,” Reese wrote at the time.

TNT analyst Charles Barkley also blasted the “petty” women who have criticized Clark amid the visibility and other growth — such as the addition of charter planes — that followed her to the WNBA.

That, though, was followed by players such as Liberty star Jonquel Jones calling out Barkley and questioning who, in fact, he was talking about.

“I think this narrative of everybody hating on Caitlin Clark, even the black and white thing — knock it off,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon told reporters Friday. “It’s not there.”

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Still, it all has created a complicated backdrop for Clark, the Fever and the rest of the league to navigate during the first two weeks of the season.

Clark, despite struggling at times, has averaged 16.7 points, 6.2 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game, with her scoring sitting 17th in the league and leading the Fever.

“It’s like, ‘This is my job. This is what I love to do. I never want to lose the fun of the game,” Clark said Friday. “And nights like tonight just remind me of why I love playing basketball and why I started playing basketball, because you get a win and you walk off the floor and there’s so many young kids just screaming your name and love getting to watch you.

“I think it’s the little things that remind me every single day of why I do this and why I love it, and I think the biggest thing is mental health is very important. It’s important for professional athletes, it’s important for student-athletes, it’s important for every single person in this world, to feel like they have somebody to talk to.”