Charles Barkley has criticized WNBA media personalities for their negative messaging surrounding superstar rookie Caitlin Clark.
“These ladies – and I’m a WNBA fan – they cannot have messed up this Caitlin Clark situation any worse if they tried,” Barkley said on The Bill Simmons Podcast this week. “People believe what we say on television. Just because people don’t like you or your personality, they can’t get on TV and slander you. It’s just total nonsense.
“If you got people in a room, a bunch of dudes in a room, we couldn’t have come up with a masterplan like what these women have done. This girl is incredible. The amount of attention, eyeballs she’s brought to college and the pros, and for these women to have this petty jealousy. You’re thinking, ‘What is going on here?’ And the thing I love about her, she never says a word. But these ladies, who I love and respect their game, they couldn’t have messed this thing up any worse. There’s been so much negativity.”
Plenty of WNBA legends have criticized Clark on TV and social media.
One WNBA legend labeled a ‘Clark hater’ is Sheryl Swoopes.
About a month ago, Swoopes stated that Indiana could still make the playoffs without Caitlin Clark, while Chicago would struggle without Angel Reese. However, the Fever have made the playoffs for the first time since the 2016 regular season because of Caitlin, while the Sky are in eighth place out of 12 WNBA teams.
Recently, she was in a feud with Stephen A. Smith for not mentioning Clark when discussing the Fever’s success.
“All I’m gonna say is, it was pretty immature to come back at me like that. Called me a coward?,” Smith said on The Stephen A. Smith Show. “Because I called you out for not doing your job? … I mean the bottom line is this: she engages in a level of immaturity. Let’s just call it what it is.”
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