INDIANAPOLIS — The adorable love-hate relationship between Caitlin Clark and Eli Krost continued Sunday as the 7-year-old was treated to courtside seats at the Indiana Fever game and was reunited with Clark, the player who helped him go viral in a kind of embarrassing way — for getting his shot blocked hard in a parking lot pickup game.
After Eli’s story was posted by IndyStar last week with his side of the story, a kid who was in that parking lot playing basketball on a makeshift goal as the walls of his Habitat for Humanity home were being built, people from all over the country reached out to help the Krost family.
Eli lives with his two sisters, Ava and Megan, and his dad, Dusten, a single father of three, in a trailer with rent the family can’t afford after a fire forced the Krosts out of another trailer that was not fit to live in.
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Clark was in Boone County at the Habitat for Humanity build as a volunteer on one of her days off from basketball when she took on Eli in a game of one-on-one. Eli may have beaten the WNBA rookie sensation, 6-2, but what the world latched onto was the video of Clark rejecting his shot.
“It wasn’t fair. I was playing a WNBA player that’s a superstar,” Eli told IndyStar, defending his basketball prowess, after he went viral as the boy who got his shot blocked by Clark the Fever phenom. “I pointed at her and said, ‘That’s not fair.’”
Among those who wanted to help Eli were plenty of Fever ticket holders. In the story, Eli made clear his one big wish.
“I want to go to a Fever game. I want to go to a Fever game really bad and I really, really want to see Caitlin Clark’s teammates,” he said. “Yeah, and I want to play on her team.”
Group 1001, the Zionsville company that helped build the Krosts’ home, stepped up and gave Eli and his family their courtside seats to Sunday’s game against the Chicago Sky. Row 1, seats 5-8, right on the court up close and personal with Clark and all the other stars.
The Fever won the game 91-83 and Clark had the best game of her pro career, 23 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
Before the game, Clark hung out with the family and embraced Eli as he leapt into her arms for a hug. She posted the moment to her Instagram story.
