WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes doesn’t believe Kaitlyn Clark is a victim of bullying within the league. She thinks Clark is the bully.
On a recent episode of former NBA player Gilbert Arenas’ podcast, Gill’s ArenaArenas and Swoopes discussed the egregious foul that Angel Reese, a Chicago Sky player and longtime rival of Caitlin Clark, committed against Clark during Sunday’s game.
Shocking. Angelo Reese and Skye are doing Angelo Reese and Skye stuff. By the way, Kaitlyn is cooking. #caitlinclark pic.twitter.com/4qeWZLsiHZ
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) June 16, 2024
Arenas tried to point out that Reese has a “brutal” playing style and is “built to be a bully,” and that Clark is set up to be a “failure.”
However, instead of agreeing with his guest, Swoopes countered by saying that Reese isn’t the bully, and that Clark is, in fact, the bully.
“She’s not a bully,” Swoopes said. “If you want to talk about bullies, talk about when Caitlyn was bullied. [Clark] “She’s got the ball, so she’s pushing it. I’m just saying.”
Reese received a flagrant 1 penalty for his hit on Clark. In total, Reese received five personal fouls in the game.
“She can control herself physically,” Arenas said, comparing Reese to Golden State’s Draymond Green. “… Her style of play is tough. She’s built to fight. She puts her helmet on and fights. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is.”
“…Wang is a flopper. I know that. I understand that. … Wang was born to flop. That’s just the way her game is built. So I feel like any contact she has she’s going to flop a little bit and that’s how she sells her fouls.”
“But Angel is tough. She was born to bully. She’s a bully. Nobody has sympathy for a bully.”
Arenas’ point is very odd. LeBron James, one of the worst floppers in the NBA, is 6’8″ and weighs 260 pounds. Is he built to flop? Flopping has nothing to do with size. It has to do with whether you have the ability to score basketballs. If you’re a better offensive player, who is more likely to be guarded, you can get away with flopping more.
Clark is the most exciting young corer in the league. The reason she fails is because she’s more likely to get fouled and the referees might not give her the benefit of the doubt because the league wants her to score.
As for Reese’s flagrant foul on Clark, Swoopes said it wasn’t a big deal.
“They want to post this video because they want to get a lot of likes and reposts, but that’s a basketball play,” Swoopes said. “She hits her in the head, so obviously that should be upgraded to Flagrant 1. The ref saw it and upgraded it. Can she keep playing basketball?”
“My point is, every time Kaitlyn gets fouled, they shouldn’t make it look like she’s been assaulted. Fouls are a part of basketball. You look at different games and players and clips. A’ja Wilson had a bloody nose and bruised eye when she played Dallas. That’s basketball.”
“…Then I got on social media and immediately thought, ‘Oh, she’s trying to take her down.’ [and] “‘She should be suspended.’ Who are you and what have you done?”
Swoopes added, “Basketball is a physical sport. That’s the reality of it. I think the things people are doing and saying about Angel Reese and Chennedy Carter of the Chicago Sky are coming from people who don’t really know basketball, don’t understand basketball.”
One could argue that Reese’s foul on Clark could be classified as a “basketball play” because it’s common in basketball, but the question here is how the league handled a play like this early in the season.
Caitlin Clark gets assaulted without a phone in another video pic.twitter.com/kyfGGiu7q7
— LeLakers 2️⃣3️⃣👑 (@LeLaker) May 23, 2024
No foul was called on this play. Unbelievable. Ridiculous.
And of course, here we have the simple assault incident by Chennedy Carter that was initially called a common foul and only upgraded after outrage erupted on the Internet.
Chennedy Carter scores a goal and gives Caitlin Clark a shoulder to lean on.pic.twitter.com/nQxkw1rvhH
— ✶ Ⓜ️ ▶️ ✶ (@_MarcusD3_) June 1, 2024
If the WNBA had protected Clark better from the start, people wouldn’t have panicked every time she was fouled. But that didn’t happen, and instead they allowed the league’s lone attraction to get hurt on a regular basis.
And that’s the league’s fault, not Caitlin Clark’s or the fans’ or the media’s.
