Shannon Sharpe continues to wave the pom poms for Fever superstar Caitlin Clark.
One of Clark’s biggest supporters since her years in Iowa, Sharpe went on ESPN’s “First Take” and his “Nightcap” podcast on Monday to call out WNBA players he believes are jealous of her and unfairly target her with non-basketball plays.
Sharpe made the comments following an incident in a game last weekend that saw Storm guard Skylar Diggins-Smith bumping into Clark during a timeout. The Hall of Famer felt the bump was intentional as the Storm were upset about Clark “busting” their behinds in the Fever’s 92-75 win.
“If I’m Caitlin Clark, I would’ve told Skylar Diggins, ‘Get your coat, your brim, and get on out of our gym. Y’all stop this foolishness,” Sharpe said. “Y’all see the woman speed up [toward Clark]. Y’all see her — Caitlin Clark is getting the crowd going [during a timeout]. Y’all see Skylar Diggins speed up to make contact with her. Stop this.”
“Y’all mad because that cornfed Iowa girl busting y’all a—. Y’all said, ‘She too weak. She can’t do this.’ She leads the WNBA in assists. She’s cooking — let her cook.”
The Broncos legend took it a step further by saying that Clark’s toughness has been questioned due to the color of her skin, a stigma others such as Larry Bird, Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic had to endure.
“They said the same thing about Larry Bird — ain’t nothing hype,” Sharpe recalled. “Ain’t nothing hype about Luka. Ain’t nothing hype about Jokic. I get it — we’re not used to seeing [this], but she’s saucy with that thing [basketball]. Watching her twice in person, I can say she is elite. She is the pinnacle at passing the basketball.”
Sharpe had blasted USAB earlier for not including Clark on the 12-woman roster for the Paris Olympics, citing her shooting and passing as skills that would have translated to FIBA basketball. After the Olympics, he pointed to poor crowd turnouts in Paris for the women’s basketball games, suggesting that Clark’s presence would have solved those issues.
Clark is averaging 17.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and a league-best 8.3 assists. Having already broken the WNBA rookie record for assists, she is on pace to become the first rookie to lead the league in assists.
