Terrible job.
Charles Barkley is speaking out against the treatment of some in and outside the WNBA of player Kaitlyn Clark, who has emerged as the biggest name in women's basketball.
Clark, who starred at the University of Iowa in college and now plays for the Indiana Fever in the WNBA, has attracted unprecedented attention in the sports world.
But in Barclay's view, not everyone is taking Clark's fundraising efforts for granted.
“These women, and I'm a WNBA fan, couldn't have ruined the Caitlin Clark case any more if they tried.” Barkley said this week on The Ringer's “Bill Simmons Podcast.”
“If you put people in a room, if you put guys in a room, they couldn't come up with a master plan based on what these women have accomplished. This girl is incredible. What she's done in women's basketball in college, what she's doing in the WNBA … When you think about the amount of attention she's brought from college to the pros and these women getting all this petty jealousy, you ask yourself: 'What the hell is going on?'”
While Barclay didn't delve into the specifics of who might be being spiteful and jealous, there are certainly some suspects.
During her rookie season, Clark received several harsh fouls from veteran WNBA players, including being shoved by Chicago Sky's Chennedy Carter.
One of Clark's most notorious media questioners has been WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes, who has been embroiled in an ongoing feud with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith.
There's also been a long-running debate over whether Clark or Angel Reese, who set a double-double record for the Sky, deserves to be named Rookie of the Year.
Clark has continued to improve throughout the season, and the Fever, who clinched a playoff spot on Tuesday night, are now 17-16 after starting 1-8.
Clark has been particularly devastating for opponents since the month-long Olympic hiatus, averaging 24.8 points and nine assists per game as the Fever have won six of their seven games.
“She's jealous over little things,” Barkley said. “What I like about her is she never says a word. She's playing a lot faster than she used to. She played too slow the first half of the season. When I saw her play last month, I thought she was playing a lot faster because she trusted the girls a lot more.”
“In college, she wasn't playing with the best players. Now when I watch her play, she plays without the ball. She reminds me a lot of Jason Kidd. He was the best I've ever seen playing without the basketball…There's been a lot of negativity, but a lot of it is just petty jealousy.”
This isn't the first time Barkley has been infuriated by the way Clark was welcomed into the league, with the NBA Hall of Famer making similar comments during the Western Conference Finals.
At the time, Sparks forward Dearica Hamby responded to X's post, “Seriously…what the hell are you talking about…”
