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Caitlin Clark, for some reason, has her share of detractors despite being the highest profile player ever to enter the WNBA. Shannon Sharpe, however, is not one of them.
In fact, Shannon Sharpe has been one of the Indiana Fever guard’s loudest public supporters, calling out the U.S. Women’s National Team for not including Caitlin Clark and denouncing the perceived jealousy that other WNBA players have shown with regard to Clark.
After Sunday night’s Indiana Fever win over the Seattle Storm – a game in which Caitlin Clark broke the rookie assists record – Sharpe was back on his soapbox, AKA the Nightcap podcast he hosts with Chad Johnson, to talk about the way Clark was treated by fellow WNBA player Skylar Diggins-Smith.
Late in the Fever’s 92-75 win, Caitlin Clark was fired up and walked in front of the Storm’s bench waving her arms trying to get the crowd even more fired up than they already were.
Diggins-Smith, seeing what Clark was doing, pulled a move reminiscent of what Angel Reese did in the NCAA championship game this past spring and made a beeline for Clark. Only instead of making a mocking gesture to Clark like Reese did, Diggins-Smith unnecessarily body-checked the WNBA assists leader.
Skylar Diggins-Smith really sped up to hit Caitlin Clark on purposepic.twitter.com/iGGzTaCPXa
— BLACK ADAM SCHEFTER (@B1ackSchefter) August 19, 2024
“If I’m Caitlin Clark, I would’ve told Skylar Diggins, ‘Get your coat, your brim, and get on out of our gym,” Sharpe told Johnson Sunday night. “Get your coat, your hat and leave!’ … They gotta stop this foolishness! Y’all see the woman speed up! Y’all see her! Caitlin Clark is getting the crowd going. Y’all see Skylar Diggins speed up to make contact with her! Stop this!
“Y’all mad because that corn-fed Iowa girl busting y’all a–. Y’all said, ‘She’s too weak. She can’t do this.’ She leads the WNBA in assists. She cooking! Let her cook! Let her cook! … Let that girl cook! She cuttin’ they a–. She’s like a double-edged sword, Ocho, she cuttin’ a– left and right … Cut ’em up!”
Shannon Sharpe did point out, and Chad Johnson agreed, he doesn’t see any WNBA players pulling moves like Diggins-Smith did on A’ja Wilson Wilson or Breanna Stewart when they score a bunch of points and beat teams, so why does it keep happening to Caitlin Clark?
“It ain’t hype,” Shannon Sharpe would go on to say. “Y’all keep talking s— about the ‘Great White hype,’ Ocho. They keep talking about she the Great, ain’t no hype! Y’all said the same thing about Larry Bird. I remember, I’m old enough to remember. They said the same thing about Larry Bird. Ain’t nothing hype. Ain’t nothing hype about Luka (Doncic). Ain’t nothing hype about (Nikola) Jokic.
“I get it. We’re not used to seein’, oh, she’s saucy with that thing. Watching her in person, twice, I’ve seen her against the Aces and I saw her at the All-Star Game, she is elite. She is the pinnacle at passing the basketball.”