When you’re only a few feet away from your basketball hero, you got to capture every second of it. With LeBron James in Gainbridge Fieldhouse tonight, Caitlin Clark certainly wasn’t going to miss watching her idol play courtside. Except, instead of catching the action on her phone’s camera, she borrowed a photographer’s vest and posted up on the floor to shoot the game herself.

She took the gig seriously. Clark wore the official vest and sat with the photographers on the floor, right where the action was. Bri Lewerke, the real Pacers photographer, was making fun of Clark’s amateur photography skills. “Caitlin learning in real time the struggle of taking a close-up photo when you’re using a 70-200 lens,” Lewerke tweeted with evidence of CC’s struggle taking Tyrese Haliburton and his fiancée’s picture before the game.

Clark fired right back: “Don’t doubt me. Wait till u see the product.” Fair warning issued.

Clark only got back to Indiana recently — she’d just wrapped her USA Basketball senior debut at the FIBA Women’s World Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico, where she broke 14 records and averaged 11.6 points and 6.4 assists. Coming home to a Lakers game with LeBron on the floor was probably a pretty good way to decompress.

This isn’t exactly a new role for her, either. Clark missed chunks of the 2025 Fever season with injuries and spent a lot of that time on the sideline with the team photographers. She knows her way around a lens. She and Haliburton have also done stints as guest contributors on NBA broadcasts during the off-season.

And she wasn’t the only one putting on a show in Indiana tonight.

LeBron made sure Clark got some good shots

Tyrese Haliburton was back on the bench tonight after a brief bout with shingles. He’s still got a while before he can suit up for the Pacers. We’re likely to see to both Hali and CC return in the upcoming season this year.

Even though the future of Indiana basketball was not on the floor tonight, Clark had to watch LeBron James play. She’s long expressed her admiration for the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. And the respect has been mutual.

He gave her plenty to photograph. The 41-year-old was relentless in the first half — catching long passes in stride, outrunning defenders half his age, and taunting two Pacers who tripped over each other trying to stop him. At one point, Clark and the crowd got to watch LeBron and Bronny run a pick-and-roll, which doesn’t happen often.

There was one moment that summed up the whole night. James got into it with the refs over a non-call in the second quarter — full meltdown — and Clark was right there with her camera, grinning. She got the shot.

LeBron’s still cooking with Luka Doncic dropping 41, and the Pacers are on the ropes. Clark’s probably hoping she comes home with a memory card full of her hero hoisting a W, but either way, she got the shots.