Sheryl Swoopes mentioned that she has spoken to Iowa guard Caitlin Clark to handle her controversial feedback on Clark’s record-breaking season.
“A few weeks in the past, I reached out to (LSU’s Angel Reese) and had a extremely good dialog with Angel over the cellphone and despatched a message to Caitlin. She responded. She and I went backwards and forwards,” Swoopes mentioned on Sunday’s Baylor-Texas Tech broadcast. “I received’t share what she mentioned, I’ll go away that to her if she desires to share. However I’ll say, what I mentioned to her was, ‘I made a mistake in saying it was your fifth 12 months when it’s your fourth.’
“I’ve nothing however respect for what she has accomplished for the sport. If she desires to share what her response was and the way that dialog went, I’ll go away that to her. However it was a extremely good dialog.”
On the “Gil’s Area” present a couple of weeks in the past, Swoopes, when requested about Clark breaking the Division I profession scoring document beforehand held by Kelsey Plum, misstated that Clark was doing so in her fifth 12 months.
Clark is a fourth-year participant (these feedback have been made earlier than Clark broke the document final week). She additionally mentioned that Clark takes “about 40 photographs a sport.” Clark has tried 22.7 discipline objectives per sport this season.
The feedback created a stir after making the rounds on social media. That dialog was heightened when a handful of Iowa followers who sat courtside throughout a latest sport wore shirts that learn: “Don’t Be A Sheryl.” Many throughout the girls’s basketball neighborhood got here to the protection of four-time WNBA champion Swoopes, together with Reese — who had her personal viral second with Clark throughout the 2023 NCAA title sport — who tweeted, “I need to be like @airswoopes22.”
What these viral clips didn’t present was the a part of the dialog the place Josiah Johnson mentioned that that is Clark’s fourth season at Iowa. Gilbert Arenas mentioned, “So these stats matter, subsequent 12 months’s stats — that ought to simply be, we don’t depend that.” Swoopes responded, “That’s true.”
Swoopes was additionally requested about Clark’s transition to the WNBA throughout the present.
“Will Caitlin Clark be a very good professional? Completely. Will Caitlin Clark come into the WNBA and do what she’s doing proper now instantly? Completely not. Not going to occur,” she mentioned.
Earlier than making that assertion, Swoopes referenced earlier feedback she made whereas on the present in October. Throughout that section, she mentioned that she thought Reese’s dominance would take a couple of seasons to transition to the WNBA.
On each the October present and this latest episode, Swoopes addressed the challenges all rookies have in making the leap due to the expertise stage, how few roster spots there are within the WNBA and the way these roster spots are largely occupied by veterans.
“I do suppose — these two gamers — not solely will get there,” Swoopes mentioned about Clark and Reese, “however they are going to be helluva WNBA gamers. They may get there. However greater than that, their reputation, I believe will completely be good for the league and usher in followers that the league hasn’t had earlier than. And that’s one thing the league wants proper now.”
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