Throughout her rookie season in the WNBA, one of Caitlin Clark’s biggest supporters at ESPN has been First Take co-host and NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe.
Sharpe continued his defense of the Indiana Fever star during a recent episode. And it came at the expense of some unnamed personalities at his network.
In particular, the three-time Super Bowl champion took issue with the notion that offering praise for a new generation of stars somehow denigrates the past accomplishments of WNBA legends.
“A lot of this noise came by people that were sitting on this network,” Sharpe said. “They tried to minimize her saying, ‘Well you giving her all this credit, what about the women that came before her?’”
“What the women came before her, what they did cannot be taken away. That ain’t got nothing to do with Caitlin Clark.”
“But there is a lot of people that tried to make sure they keep Caitlin Clark in her place because what you’re doing if you give her all this shine, you minimize what they done,” he claimed. “‘You can’t minimize Maya Moore or Candace Parker or Lisa Leslie or Lauren Jackson or Diana Taurasi or any of the other great players.’”
Did ESPN Minimize Caitlin Clark?
It’s unclear which ESPN personalities Sharpe was calling out, but as the New York Post reports, two such individuals were involved in the very segment regarding Caitlin Clark.
Andraya Carter had diminished the Clark-Angel Reese rivalry as a couple of “mid” players on a couple of “mid” teams while Stephen A. Smith suggested the rivalry would barely be noticed if not for the racial component.
Sharpe continued his tirade against ESPN hosts who claim that giving Caitlin Clark credit somehow minimized the players in the league before her.
“Caitlin Clark, what she’s doing, doesn’t minimize what they’ve done,” he continued. “But we should’ve been giving her the credit. We saw the ratings, we saw the merchandise sales, we saw the attendance, but y’all want to make it about something else. … Caitlin Clark is box office.”
“She’s doing this. And instead of giving her credit, y’all trying to make it about, ‘Oh y’all poo-poo’ing the old guard. Y’all never talked about the old guard like this,'” added Sharpe. “Nah, I ain’t gonna let it slide.”
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Sharpe To Caitlin’s Defense!
Sharpe is right, of course. Giving Caitlin Clark her flowers does not take away from the women who paved the way in the WNBA.
Just as praising and getting excited over basketball when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird came to the NBA didn’t take away from past stars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, or Bill Russell.
Sorry your league was boring and unwatchable before charismatic and transcendent stars came along.
This isn’t the first time Sharpe has defended Clark for unfair treatment. He blasted WNBA players and suggested the number of flagrant fouls targeting the Fever guard was the victim of was “not an anomaly”.
“Y’all mad because that cornfed Iowa girl busting y’all […]!” Sharpe said previously. “Y’all said, ‘She’s too weak. She can’t do this.’ She leads the WNBA in assists. She’s cooking — let her cook. Let her cook! Let that girl cook!”
He also hammered the United States Women’s Basketball Team for not taking Clark to the Olympics over some of the older players.
