WNBA icon Sheryl Swoopes explains false Caitlin Clark statements, speaks out against ex-friend Nancy Lieberman

WNBA Hall of Famer and broadcaster Sheryl Swoopes held an X Spaces on Tuesday to address a controversy regarding her previous statements about Caitlin Clark and a severed friendship between herself and former WNBA coach Nancy Lieberman.  

Swoopes has been criticized as a harsh and, by some, "unfair" critic of Clark dating back to the end of Clark's college career. Swoopes infamously made questionable statements about the length and statistics of Clark's college career, during an appearance on "Gil's Arena" podcast in February. 

While discussing the topic of how Clark broke the NCAA's all-time basketball points record in her senior year in 2023, Swoopes said Clark stayed in college for five seasons and took over 40 shots per game. Swoopes was also criticized for comment that included the phrase "25-year-old playing against 18-year-olds," during a discussion about Clark's college success, but Swoopes did not directly implicate Clark being older than her listed age. 

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However, Clark played four seasons while averaging just 22.7 shots per game en route to the record. She was 22 when she finished her last college season earlier this year. 

Swoopes said she "absolutely" takes credit for "saying the wrong things," but she also said she would not apologize to anyone but Clark herself for it. 

"I don't owe you all an apology," Swoopes said. "I reached out to Caitlin. We've had a great conversation."

Swoopes posted screenshots of text messages with a contact named Caitlin Clark, which took place in February, on X on Monday that shows the former player apologizing.

Swoopes blamed confusion over the interruption of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 2020-2021 college basketball season for the mistake of suggesting Clark played a fifth year on the podcast. 

"With COVID and all of those things, I thought, honest mistake but maybe I'm not allowed to make those, I thought it was Caitlin's fifth year," Swoopes said. "So the producer of the show looked it up and said ‘no it was her fourth year’ on the show … I said ‘ you know what, if it is her fourth year and she breaks the record then great, it’s a legitimate record.'"

In regard to suggestions about Clark being 25, Swoopes also credited confusion over the COVID-19 situation, while also suggesting it was hyperbole. 

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"I don't know if people understand Hyperbole," Swoopes said on Tuesday. "With the COVID year, you have older people, men and women, playing against younger people because of the COVID year and you get an extra year, so there may be people who are 23 and 24 … so I made that statement but it wasn't me saying ‘yeah well Caitlin is 25 playing against 22 year olds.’"

Swoopes also credit hyperbole for the exaggeration about how many shots Clark takes per game. 

"Do I think she takes 40 shots a game? No. Does she take a lot of shots, or did she in college? yeah! So instead of saying 40 I probably should have said ‘she takes a lot of shots in college,’" Swoopes said. 

"It's like somebody getingg on the elevator the other day, and somebody said ‘dang, she must be 400 lbs!’ When, in reality, you know that women is not 400 lbs!" 

Swoopes was recently removed from her regular duties as a TV analyst for the Dallas Wings for a game against Clark's Indiana Fever on Sunday. Lieberman filled in for Swoopes on the broadcast. Then, during an appearance on "The Stephen A. Smith Show," Lieberman said her relationship with Swoopes is "pretty much done" due to a recent argument about Swoopes' incorrect statements about Clark. 

"I called her as a friend and I said, ‘You can say whatever you want … but you do have to get the statistics right. I mean, facts matter," Lieberman said. "She got upset with me on the phone, and I was like, ‘Sheryl, I’m not doing anything to hurt you.’ … So, our relationship pretty much is not happening at this point. I tried to talk to her at the Final Four, she didn’t want to talk to me. My life is going to be good or great with or without Sheryl Swoopes in my life. I’d rather have her in it."

Swoopes responded to the clip in a post on X, saying her life "was better" without Lieberman. 

Swoopes addressed the feud with Lieberman further on Tuesday and suggested that a phone call between the two didn't happen and that their disagreement stemmed from a social media interaction and a text exchange.

"What I do know didn't happen was a phone call from her," Swoopes said. "Nancy Lieberman decided she was going to be upset that I said it was going to be an adjustment for Caitlin, Angel [Reese] and all the rookies, but in particular Caitlin, and that I said she wasn't going to come in the league and dominate right away, and it's my opinion. And she got upset that I said that, so she decided she was going to go to Twitter and call me out.

"Don't say you called me to talk about that when you didn't. You posted that on Twitter and then I responded to you, I texted you, and said ‘Nancy if you have something to say, call me, since we’re supposed to be, quote, friends.'"

Swoopes, 53, is famously the first player to ever be signed in the WNBA when she joined the Houston Comets in 1997. She led Houston to four championships from 1997-2000 and was named league MVP three times in 2000, 2002 and 2005. 

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