Caitlin Clark has been stalked. She's far from alone in the WNBA

The Guardian features Shira Gabriel, professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, in an article about WNBA players who have been stalked by fans. The fan-athlete relationship is parasocial, Gabriel says and points out that parasocial relationships aren’t inherently bad, and we all have them. Humans seek connection, Gabriel says. “If you’re a big WNBA fan, you can feel connected to the whole fandom, and that’s great,” Gabriel continues. “That’s an important thing for us. Again, we’re a really social species, and we want to have those connections … this is something that healthy people do and that increases the degree to which we can feel connected.” Those relationships begin to go wrong when people forget or don't think about the fact that the person they're bonding with is an actual living and breathing human being. “They’re just sort of this person online, and that opens up avenues for people to behave in ways or treat people in a way that they wouldn’t in their real life.” “I think the people who are doing this are people who are probably not particularly stable in other aspects of what they’re doing,” Gabriel says.