When Sheryl Swoopes repeatedly criticized or ignored Caitlin Clark, she was tagged as a hater. And the two analysts who were at the forefront were Stephen A. Smith and Nancy Lieberman. While Smith and Lieberman kept on singing praises for Clark, Swoopes was at the receiving end of their fury. The Hall of Famer on receiving so much criticism didn’t back away and instead took to X to reveal her side of the story. She went as far ahead as posting Smith’s number online and expressing that the latter was calling to threaten her. And now after the drama has come to a standstill, the 4x WNBA Champion praised Clark to prove that she isn’t a hater.
“Instead, he brought Nancy Lieberman on the show. And the one thing that I’ll say about that conversation is and you and I had this conversation she lied, she flat out lied coz she never called me. Long story short what she did was went to twitter which is what everybody does. And posted something basically saying ‘my dear friend’ let me also say this you’re not my dear friend,” Swoopes revealed.
The altercation started when Lieberman probably exposed Swoopes on the Stephen A. Smith show. As per Lieberman, after Swoopes had been critical of Clark’s all-time NCAA scoring record earlier this year, she had called the broadcaster and asked her to get her facts right. As per Lieberman, “You do have to get the statistics right—II mean, facts matter.” She went as far as enunciating on the show, “My life’s going to be good or great with or without Sheryl Swoopes in my life—I’d rather have her in it.” This enraged Swoopes, who took to X to share her side of the story.
Plus Lieberman also took to X, to share Clark’s NCAA stats in February asking Swoopes “My dear friend @sherylswoopes22 why can’t they shine as you did in your rookie year in the @WNBA @CaitlinClark22 @IowaWBB @angelreese @LSUwbkb Special is Special go do your thing ladies!” This has apparently hurt Swoopes who clarified that Lieberman isn’t a ‘dear friend.’
“Why can’t Caitlin shine? like the rest of us do, like you do, like I do. I think she’s gonna be great. Let me introduce you to Caitlin Clark. So she goes on to put her stats which cool. Great. But you didn’t call me. I saw all that and I messaged you and I said ‘Nancy like wassup? If you got something to say call me.’ She didn’t call me it was via text exchange. Long story short she said well we’re gonna agree to disagree. And I said and that’s perfectly fine. That’s your opinion. You have yours I have mine. But I am not entitled to have mine. But anyway,” Swoopes stated via The Queens of the Court podcast.
USA Today via Reuters
As per Swoopes, she had understood what Lieberman and Smith were doing. She blamed Lieberman for spreading lies since, as per her, the 66-year-old hadn’t called Swoopes. Instead, she was trying to target her. “And ditto…my life is good without you too (and him). You wanna go there?” Swoopes gave a thunderous reply. And with her admission on Friday now, Swoopes has divulged that instead of a call, she had received text messages that concluded with both parties agreeing to respect the opinions of the other side.
It looks like the respect was amiss in the conversation. To probably share her point of view, Swoopes has backed the Fever rookie Caitlin Clark now. She previously even went ahead to reveal the texts she exchanged with Clark after calling her out, most probably in an attempt to justify that she isn’t a hater.
Sheryl Swoopes reveals apology texts exchanged with Caitlin Clark
When Clark had broken Kelsey Plum’s record of all-time leading women’s NCAA D1 scorer, Swoopes had mistakenly opined that Clark had done it in 5 years, including the extra year of COVID eligibility, while Plum did in 4. Clark had taken only four years for her feat, and hence it earned Swoopes a lot of backlash. Following that, Swoopes is said to have apologized to Clark. When Lieberman and Smith targeted her, the 53-year-old revealed the conversation she had with Clark in February.
As per the texts, Swoopes apologized to Clark for making a mistake, which the latter accepted with open arms. “I have nothing but respect for you and your game,” Swoopes expressed in the text message. Meanwhile, Clark also thanked Swoopes for being a legend and moving the game forward apart from inspiring girls. The conversation concluded with sweet words from Swoopes for Clark.
And now, with the recent backing, Swoopes has once again made it clear that she is in no way meaning to harm Clark. Instead, she respects the Fever rookie for her records and expects a certain kind of acceptance from her fans and the analysts for her opinions.
