WNBA Hall of Famer and broadcaster Sheryl Swoopes hosted X Spaces on Tuesday, where she addressed the controversy surrounding her past comments about Caitlin Clark and the tumultuous friendship between her and former WNBA coach Nancy Lieberman.
Swoopes has been criticized since the end of Clarke’s college career as a harsh and, by some, “unfair” critic. Questionable statements Regarding the length and statistics of Clark’s college career, during an appearance “Gills Arena” podcast in February.
While discussing how Clark broke the NCAA all-time basketball points record in her senior year in 2023, Swoopes noted that Clark had been in college for five seasons and took over 40 shots per game. Swoopes was also criticized for comments that included the phrase “a 25-year-old player playing against 18-year-old players” during a discussion about Clark’s college success, but Swoopes did not directly refer to Clark as being older than her listed age.
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Texas Tech alumna Sheryl Swoopes attends a Texas Tech game against Baylor at United Supermarkets Arena on January 28, 2023 in Lubbock, Texas. (image)
However, Clarke played four seasons and averaged just 22.7 shots per game while setting the record. He was 22 years old when he completed his final college season earlier this year.
Swoopes said she “absolutely” takes credit for “saying the wrong things,” but added that she wouldn’t apologize for it to anyone but Clark.
“I don’t need to apologize to you all,” Swoopes said. “I reached out to Kaitlyn. We had a great conversation.”
Swoops posted a screenshot A series of text messages from February with a person named Caitlin Clark went viral on X on Monday, showing the former player apologizing.
Swoopes attributed the mistake of suggesting Clarke could play a fifth year on the podcast to the confusion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of the 2020–2021 college basketball season.
“With COVID and all that stuff, I thought, honestly mistaken but maybe I’m not allowed to do that, I thought this was Kaitlyn’s fifth year,” Swoopes said. “So the producer of the show looked at it and said ‘no it was her fourth year on the show’ … I said ‘you know, if it’s her fourth year and she breaks the record then great, it’s a legitimate record.’”
Regarding the suggestion that Clarke is 25 years old, Swoopes also blamed confusion over the COVID-19 situation, adding that it was an exaggeration.
WNBA’s harsh reception of Caitlin Clark is ‘good for the sport,’ says ESPN’s Holly Rowe
“I don’t know if people understand the hyperbole,” Swoopes said Tuesday. “Because of the COVID year, you have older people, men and women, playing against younger people because of the COVID year and you get an extra year so there could be people who are 23 and 24 years old … So I made that statement but it wasn’t me saying, ‘Yeah, Kaitlyn is 25 and playing against 22-year-olds.’”
Swoopes also exaggerated how many shots Clark takes per game.
“Do I think she takes 40 shots a game? No. Does she take that many shots, or did she take those in college? Yes! So instead of saying 40 I probably should have said ‘she takes a lot of shots in college,'” Swoopes said.
“It’s like a person getting in an elevator one day and someone says, ‘Dude, that must weigh 400 pounds!’ When, in reality, you know women don’t weigh 400 pounds!”
Swoopes was recently removed from his regular duties as the Dallas Wings’ TV analyst for Clark’s game against the Indiana Fever on Sunday. Lieberman replaced Swoopes on the broadcast. Then, during an appearance on “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Lieberman said his relationship with Swoopes is “pretty much over” because of the recent spat sparked by Swoopes’ inaccurate statements about Clark.
Caitlin Clarke (Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
“I called her as a friend and I said, ‘You can say whatever you want … but you’ve got to get the facts right. I mean, the facts matter,'” Lieberman said. “She got mad at me on the phone, and I said, ‘Sheryl, I’m not doing anything to hurt you.’ … So, our relationship is pretty much nonexistent at this point. I tried to talk to her at the Final Four, she didn’t want to talk to me. My life is going to be good or great with or without Sheryl Swoopes. I’d rather have her with me.”
Swoopes responded to the clip in a post on Axe, saying her life was “better” without Lieberman.
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Swoopes on Tuesday elaborated on the feud with Lieberman, saying there was no phone conversation between the two, but rather their disagreement stemmed from conversations on social media and exchanges of text messages.
“I know that didn’t happen, it was just her phone call,” Swoopes said. “Nancy Lieberman decided she was going to be upset that I said it was going to be an adjustment for Kaitlyn, Angel (Reese) and all the new players, but especially for Kaitlyn, and I said she wasn’t going to come into the league and dominate right away, and that’s my opinion. And she was upset that I said that, so she decided she was going to go on Twitter and lash out at me.”
“Don’t say you called me to talk about this when you didn’t. You posted it on Twitter and then I responded to you, messaged you and said ‘Nancy if you have anything to say call me because we’re friends.'”
Swoopes, 53, is best known as the first player to be signed to the WNBA when she joined the Houston Comets in 1997. She led Houston to four championships from 1997-2000 and was named league MVP three times in 2000, 2002 and 2005.
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