The last time Charles Barkley had something to say about the WNBA was during the NBA playoffs. Indiana Fever, a team that only won a dozen games last season, selected Caitlin Clark first overall in the 2024 WNBA draft. With the top college star came the attention and commercial success of the league. More attention meant more people saw Clark getting hard-fouled. That time, Chuck took a cue from LeBron James and used up TNT’s airtime to go on a tirade. So on The Bill Simmons Podcast, it was the sequel to Chuck’s bubbling feelings about the Caitlin Clark situation.

In Barkley’s opinion, the WNBA has mishandled the fame and popularity Clark is drawing. He quite bluntly says, “These ladies – and I’m a WNBA fan – they cannot have f**ked this Caitlin Clark thing up any worse if they tried.”

He kind of paints a hypothetical picture of some people wanting to sabotage the WNBA rise, joking, “If you got a bunch of dudes in a room and say let’s f**k up the WNBA, we couldn’t have come up with a master plan than what these women have done.” So yes, Barkley is saying that the athletes in the league are hurting the WNBA with their treatment of CC.

Barkley hasn’t commented on the WNBA lately but he’s kept an eye on the games, including Indiana Fever’s undeniable improvement. Off the back of their rookie point guard, the team has gone 8-2 in the last 10 with 7 games remaining in the regular season. It has seen the team move up from the 10th seed last year to 6th, qualifying for the postseason for the first time since 2016. While Clark makes and breaks records, Indiana has experienced a triple-digit (%) increase in ticket sales, viewership, and merchandise sales.

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While Sheryl Swoopes credited that to the Fever veterans, Sir Charles comfortably declared the team and the league owe it to Caitlin Clark. “This girl is incredible. What she did in college for women’s basketball, what she’s doing in the WNBA… and for these women to have this petty jealousies…” Barkley stated on the podcast. Yes, Chuck just fashioned a new word to describe it. And it won’t be the last time he stands in CC’s corner.

Charles Barkley’s critique is consistent

Barkley had been vocally supportive of Clark since she was leading the Iowa Hawkeyes through the NCAA Tournament. One of her first matchups against Angel Reese as pros was overshadowed by Sky veteran, Chennedy Carter hard-fouling Clark. A lot of NBA players decried it, including Draymond Green and LeBron James.

Chuck went off-topic in the playoffs to say, “Hey, LeBron, you’re 100 percent right on these girls hating on Caitlin Clark. Y’all petty, girls. I expect men to be petty because we’re the most insecure group in the world. Y’all should be thanking that girl for getting y’all a** private charters, all the money and visibility she’s bringing to the WNBA. Don’t be petty like dudes.” 

The rant was longer with Chuck repeating that the WNBA is full of petty, jealous athletes who should be grateful to Clark. Several WNBA players and insiders slammed him back then. Briefly, he acknowledged that Clark had to improve but he meant that Clark enabled the league’s popularity.

Since his rant, Clark came back stronger from the Olympics break, led her team on a winning streak, and is on assists and three-point streaks. Barkley notes that she’s becoming faster and trusts her teammates more. But most of all, “The thing that I love about her, she never says a word.”

As he observes, Caitlin is rising above the noise and focused on leading her team. Whatever she does, though, Charles Barkley’s going to have the last laugh over CC haters. Find out more about how Caitlin Clark continues to make history in the WNBA with the help of the She Got Game YouTube channel.