Sheryl Swoopes is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. This is not simply limited to the WNBA or women’s basketball as a whole. Air Swoopes is an OG of the W and one of the best to ever put on a uniform and kicks – women or men.
Swoopes spearheaded the WNBA’s original dynasty when the Houston Comets won the first four championships in the league’s history.
Lately, Swoopes (who also is an analyst for Dallas Wings games) has received a lot of attention to what has become a very toxic, yet loud and sizable fraction of the WNBA family – aficionados of Caitlin Clark.
Many of Clark’s “fans” appear to be living vicariously through every word Swoopes says nowadays – whether what she says on the mic for Wings games, what she says on her Queens of the Court podcast (one of our favorite pods by the way) or on any other forum that she is on.
Recently, she spoke about the recent success that the Indiana Fever have experienced. As of this writing, the Fever are one game over .500 and are 8-2 in their last 10 games. This includes going 6-1 since the All-Star/Olympic break concluded where the Fever’s only defeat was to the Minnesota Lynx. Indiana has claimed its first playoff berth since the Tamika Catchings days.
In that short segment, she highlighted three players that were pivotal to the Fever’s success – Lexie Hull, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. These Clark “supporters” – many of whom have only watched women’s basketball when Clark began wearing an Iowa uniform and many of whom only began watching the WNBA this year – ran with it as a sign that Swoopes must have some sort of animosity towards No. 22.
First of all – why would Swoopes have any sort of animosity towards Clark? Again – she won four championships. It is not as if she was the Kwame Brown of the WNBA.
To look at Swoopes praising teammates of Clark such as Hull, Boston and Mitchell as subliminally throwing shade at No. 22 is textbook low vibrational behavior. Hull adds backcourt depth and plays stifling defense. Boston is one of the team’s leading scorers at 13.4 points per game and is Indiana’s leading rebounder (nine a contest). She is one rebound shy of a double-double to average the season.
As for Mitchell – she, not Clark, is the Fever’s leading scorer. Mitchell is averaging 19 points to Clark’s 18.7. Also Mitchell is shooting nearly 40 percent from behind the 3-point line.
Also – many of these Clark “supporters” need to be called out for some of their toxic behavior. When individuals go on social media and are turning the police murder of George Floyd into a meme to get their point across about their belief that the whole of the W revolves around No. 22, that says everything we need to know about the temperature of the discourse.
In fact, the same Swoopes who is a consistent target by Clark’s “fans” anytime she speaks and fails to mention her name is the same Swoopes who had to reach out to Diamond DeShields when she was targeted online by these same people on the subject of her tumor.
A large number of Clark’s fans are not consuming the WNBA to educate themselves on the league. They are simply using Clark as a conduit to spew their hatred towards the Black women of the W because all they know is Iowa (and what that team looked like). That is what makes many of these individuals uncomfortable – when the lens is turned inward on their toxic behavior instead of what they are alleging Swoopes is engaging in.
Many of Clark’s superfans have brought up how allegations of Swoopes’ mistreatment of players while a coach at Loyola in Chicago led to her being fired from that program. That may be fair game – but it also was a story nearly a decade ago. The racial shots being taken at Black players such as DeShields, Angel Reese, Chennedy Carter and the Connecticut Sun’s DiJonai Carrington is happening today.
Many of Clark’s superfans are also bringing up Nancy Lieberman’s comments recently on Stephen A. Smith’s podcast where she mentioned Lieberman calling Swoopes and mentioning how she needed to get her stats right. Swoopes then brought up what Lieberman said regarding Carter’s hard foul on Clark earlier this season which was amplified up to 11 by the mainstream media.
Even CNN did a segment with Bob Costas about that foul. And it is sad that it appears Swoopes and Lieberman – two pillars of the women’s game – seemingly no longer have a friendship because of this Clark discourse gone wrong. Swoopes was even pulled from doing color commentary of the recent Fever-Wings game in favor of Lieberman.
The worst part of all of this is the fact they need validation from Swoopes to begin with. Apparently, Clark’s superb scoring and ball distribution on the court is not enough for some of these new “fans.” Apparently, Clark being named Eastern Conference Player of the Month is not enough. Apparently, Clark being the presumptive leader in the clubhouse for the 2024 Rookie of the Year Award is not enough. Apparently, Clark leading the Fever to the team’s first playoff appearance in eight years is not enough. It is a sad state of affairs.
Also – let us not act as if Clark is the perfect prototypical player because – she is not. In fact, there may not be a such thing as the perfect prototypical player because there is no such thing. Clark is turnover-prone and there are questions about her defense. To point these things out of Clark or any player is not “hating” on a player – it is simply pointing out weak points of their game that they themselves (and their coaches) likely also acknowledge.
These new “fans” along with plenty of bad actors in the media have ran with false narratives all season – from already proclaiming Clark as the face of the league despite being a rookie to claiming other WNBA players are jealous of Clark.
Firstly – there is a difference between being A face of the league and THE face of the league. Clark may be A face of the league, but until further notice – THE face of the WNBA does wear No. 22 – but wears the silver and black of the Las Vegas Aces. Her name is A’ja Wilson (and even Clark herself would say this).
Secondly – the only “evidence” that the media has to push this narrative that the rest of the W is “jealous” of Clark is hard fouls.
This is the WNBA. Everyone gets fouled hard – especially rookies. This may be a shock to many people but playing against professional grown women who are paid to play at the highest level (and are not afraid to get physical) is not the same as hooping against teenagers at the more finesse college level.
In fact, Angel Reese got fouled hard by Alyssa Thomas earlier this season. Does that mean Thomas is “jealous” of Reese? See how ridiculous it sounds?
Given that Swoopes is the ambassador for the game that she is, we are more than confident that she is willing to laud the deserved praise on Clark that so many of her “fans” are begging for. They claim Swoopes is being toxic and more Clark praise will be a sign that she has turned the corner.
But the “new fans” and individuals in the media who clearly are new to the women’s game (and still mispronouncing player names) need to understand that they cannot ask of Swoopes what they are unwilling to ask of themselves.
