Charles Barkley absolutely unloaded on the WNBA, calling out athletes who are jealous of Caitlin Clark and suggesting they could not have screwed up the handling of a once-in-a-generation star worse if they tried.
Except he used language that was much more colorful in his analysis.
Barkley appeared on Wednesday’s episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast” and once again railed against players suffering from a bout of pettiness with the way they’ve handled the Indiana Fever star’s rookie season.
“These ladies – and I’m a WNBA fan – they cannot have […] this Caitlin Clark thing up any worse if they tried,” the NBA Hall of Famer railed.
“If you got a bunch of dudes in a room and said, ‘Let’s […] up the WNBA,’ we couldn’t have come up with a massive plan (better than) what these women have done.”
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Charles Barkley Has Had It With How Caitlin Clark Is Being Treated
While the positives and the negatives are certainly up for debate, the premise of Charles Barkley’s comments is nearly undeniable. Caitlin Clark has been the recipient of an inordinately high number of flagrant, off-ball fouls.
A vast majority of which seem to be attention-seeking rather than hard basketball plays.
“For these women to have this petty jealousness,” Barkley said. “You say to yourself, ‘Damn, what is going on here?'”
The original member of the Dream Team points out that Clark, through all the questionable treatment from her fellow WNBA athletes, maintains the high road.
“There’s been so much negativity,” Barkley continued. “A lot of it is just petty jealousness. I tell you what was really good that happened to her – Not making the Olympic team. Giving her that time off has given her a chance to recharge her batteries.”
“She probably did deserve to make the Olympic team on merit but her getting that time off probably was the best thing to happen to her.”
"They cannot have f—ed this Caitlin Clark thing up any worse if they tried."
— The Ringer (@ringer) September 4, 2024
Charles Barkley sounds off against some of the WNBA media's negative narratives that have surrounded Caitlin Clark this season.@BillSimmons pic.twitter.com/GrWbY5xiB4
They Unleashed A Monster
That right there is what we’re talking about when we lean towards disagreeing with Charles Barkley a bit on how they’ve handled Caitlin Clark.
The Olympic snub led Clark to tell her coach that “they woke a monster”.
And they certainly did.
Since returning from the break, Indiana has won 6 out of 7 games and clinched a playoff spot, even climbing above .500 and into the 6-seed.
Since the break, Clark has averaged 24.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 9.0 assists per game while shooting 48% from the field, 39% from beyond the three-point line, and 93% from the foul line.
Lights. Out.
The hard fouls and the constant disrespect might have lit a fire under her as well. And an angry Clark might be better for the WNBA as a whole.
So maybe they tried to screw things up, but it’s actually backfiring on them.
This isn’t the first time Charles Barkley has called women in the WNBA petty and insecure over their handling of Caitlin Clark.
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