Sheryl Swoopes was mysteriously absent from the broadcast of Sunday's Indiana Fever vs. Dallas Wings game, but sports commentator Stephen A. Smith seems to know why.
Swoopes normally serves as a commentator for the Dallas Wings, but when Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever came to her home court, fans noticed Nancy Lieberman at the microphone instead of Swoopes.
Well, in his latest episode Stephen A. Smith ShowSmith claims he was fired because Swoopes behaved unfairly and unprofessional in the comments he made about Clark.
“What makes someone like Sheryl Swoopes even more guilty, in my opinion — and this is just my opinion — is that, by the way, she was supposed to be doing the play-by-play with you guys yesterday and she didn't,” Smith said.
“And it definitely has to do with the fact that when Caitlin Clark had her moment earlier in the week, she didn't want to talk about it at all,” he continued, pointing to Clark's 32 points and 12 assists in last week's 100-81 win over the Chicago Sky.
Smith added that Swoopes' superiors appeared to believe her “personal feelings” were “permeating the trial and compromising her professional standing.”
The sports commentator added that it was clear Swoopes disliked Clark and that it seemed like she was letting her personal feelings undermine her professionalism.
“But in the case of Sheryl Swoopes, and I'm not going to get into this, but I think it's important to note that Sheryl Swoopes is a winner. She's a great athlete and she's gifted at basketball,” Smith explained.
“What she doesn't realize is that if you don't say the obvious, it's automatically taken as personal because we know you know the game of basketball, the game of basketball, too well to ignore the sort of things that she's ignoring with regards to Caitlin Clark,” he concluded.
It's hard to fault Smith for her opinion of Swoopes, as the former WNBA star has made inappropriate comments about Clark over the course of two years, downplaying Clark's apparent top status in the league and ignoring Clark's performance in favor of lesser players.
For example, in January, Swoopes absurdly turned the tables and claimed Clark was a “bully,” despite clear evidence that Clark was frequently fouled on the court and was the target of obvious physical abuse during games.
And in her recent episode: Queen of the Court On the podcast, Swoopes listed all the reasons why the Fever are doing so well this season and praised the team's Aaliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell and Lexi Hull. No mention of Caitlin Clark Not at all, Fox Sports noted, despite her leading the team in most statistics.
Swoopes was also criticized for lying about Clark's college career, claiming that Clark played five seasons in college and artificially inflated his statistics, taking more than 40 shots per game, when in truth Clark only played four seasons and averaged 27.7 shots per game.
Swoopes later issued a half-hearted apology and blamed COVID-19 for the confusion surrounding the college season.
Finally, faced with the accusation that he is a racist who hates Clark simply because he is white, Swoopes dispels the age-old myth that “black people can't be racist” because he is black.
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