The WNBA drama has been at an all-time high, especially with the subplot involving Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, which seems to take on a life of its own. WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes has faced a lot of scrutiny for her criticism of the 2024 number-one draft pick, Caitlin Clark. In January, Swoopes appeared on Gil’s Arena podcast, claiming that Clark had played five years in College, not taking into account the COVID year.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist has been critical of Clark throughout the year, even as Clark has continued to break records and become an increasingly impactful player as the season progresses. During a Las Vegas Aces and Dallas Wings game, when the play-by-play announcer mentioned that Clark had won Eastern Conference Player of the Week, Swoopes responded with silence—no words, not a zip.
Swoopes has commented on how the Indiana Fever has improved, notably without mentioning Clark, which prompted Stephen A. Smith to call her omission “insane.”
Swoopes clapped back at Smith, telling him he needed to watch the full clip and not base his opinion on a single video. Swoopes was not present for Clark’s most recent game against the Wings, where she usually serves as one of the color commentators. Instead, Nancy Lieberman, a former basketball player and Big 3 champion, replaced Swoopes for the Dallas game against Indiana and went on a passionate rant about Clark’s impressive rookie season.
This season, the Dallas Wings announced that Swoopes, Lieberman, and Fran Harris would rotate as analysts throughout the season. It could have been a coincidence that Swoopes was not assigned to this game. Lieberman appeared on Stephen A. Smith’s show and discussed her lack of a relationship with Swoopes due to Swoopes’ criticism of Clark. However, she never confirmed whether she was specifically supposed to commentate on the Wings’ latest game.
“I called her when Caitlin was still playing at Iowa, and she had just broken Pete Maravich’s record,” Lieberman told Smith. “There was this quote from Sheryl saying Caitlin was 25 years old, a fifth-year senior, taking 40 shots a game, and her record was illegitimate.”
“I got off the treadmill and called her as a friend and said, ‘You can say whatever you want and have your own opinion about anybody, but you have to get the statistics right. Facts matter.’ If you get ahead of this and say, ‘Hey, I made a mistake on my numbers,’ then this thing is over, and everyone respects you for your opinion.”
Swoopes responded to Stephen A. Smith’s video featuring Lieberman, explaining that she saw the game he was trying to play by inviting everyone except her to discuss her dispute with Clark on his show.
Now here you go! I get what you trying to do wit ya boy @stephenasmith but it ain't working. You know good and well what happened. And ditto…my life is good without you too(and him). You wanna go there? https://t.co/puXmIfjy56
— Sheryl Swoopes (@airswoopes22) September 2, 2024
However, she then shared texts from February in which she apologized to Clark and had a candid and friendly conversation with her.
Here you go! This is from February. pic.twitter.com/n7m9v4FPlE
— Sheryl Swoopes (@airswoopes22) September 2, 2024
Smith’s tangents on his podcasts have rubbed fans the wrong way. He speaks on a topic without going to the actual source, and they’ve harped on their displeasure of Smith on Twitter. Check out some of the tweets below that the four-time WNBA Champion retweeted herself and asked SAS to invite her to his show.
@stephenasmith, again, bring me on your show! With or without your backup @NancyLieberman.
— Sheryl Swoopes (@airswoopes22) September 3, 2024
Stephen A is interviewing everyone about Sheryl Swoopes except for Sheryl herself is on brand lol.
It it goes back to what Monica said. If he wanted to he would have done it by now.
— Greg, MBA (@itsgreg72) September 3, 2024
Literally! Bc if you wanna talk about it, do it with the person you’re talking about/have a problem with. If we gon talk, if there’s going to be a conversation, let’s do it right https://t.co/ElRn0oyQ4A
— TheOnly_TeeVilly😎 (@iamtheonly5) September 3, 2024
Stephen A. Smith could have just interviewed Sheryl Swoopes, instead he chose to speak to someone to speak about Sheryl Swoopes and her “comments” about Caitlin. Why not speak with Sheryl herself?
— Maliika Walker (@maliikawalker) September 3, 2024
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