Sheryl Swoops’ Caitlin Clark Ignorance Continues Amid Candid GOAT Debate with Rickea Jackson’s Mom

USA Today via Reuters

If the new WNBA fans are to remember Sheryl Swoopes, they will always keep her in their thoughts for creating controversies. Swoopes takes on Caitlin Clark have garnered so much attention that now even her ignorance has been taken as a symbol of criticism. Firstly, Swoopes ignored Clark’s contribution to the Indiana Fever wins post-Olympics comeback. Then she also went silent for 50 seconds when her co-commentator, Ron Thulin, during the Aces-Wings game in August, applauded Clark for Winning Player of the Week. And now when a certain fan included Clark in the GOAT list, she was ignored by the 4x WNBA Champion.

Swoopes was present in a discussion with Rickea Jackson’s mother Caryn Jackson on X surrounding the potential GOAT player. While Swoopes opined that A’ja Wilson deserved to be labeled one, Jackson’s mother looked to agree with her. However, in a now-deleted comment, a fan opined that Caitlin Clark deserved to get the honors, and was ignored by Swoopes.

Sheryl Swoopes ignores Caitlin Clark’s fan

“To THE BEST player in the world @_ajawilson22 . We see you, we hear you, we feel you and we got you! Continue to be you because you are GREATNESS! #GODSCHILD #Blessed,” Swoopes enunciated of the Las Vegas Aces star, A’ja Wilson, who during her Wednesday outing against the Indiana Fever scored 27 points to surpass Jewell Loyd’s single-season scoring record. The MVP candidate surpassed to reach 956 points this season while the next best Loyd had 939 in 2023.

Rickea’s mother Caryn looked to agree with Swoopes and commented “No lies told here…she’s the greatest playing player today!!!” To which one fan remarked, “Caitlin better.” While the LA Sparks rookie’s mother replied “I Love, love, luv Catlin, but let’s be real…I birth my favorite player in the whole wide world…today tho it’s A’ja.” Swoopes probably in order to avoid giving a harsh view, kept away from the tweet and instead chose to concentrate on the tweet by Jackson’s mom.

“💯‼️ But your favorite player is one of them too Mama!😤😤😤. She will absolutely be in that conversation someday.❤️,” Swoopes remarked while lauding Jackson but staying away from saying anything about Caitlin Clark. And this caught the attention of fans.

While Wilson is known for her blocks and rebounds and has been on the top of her offensive game this season, Clark is known for her points/assists double-doubles. With 14 double-doubles, Clark has the most by any guard in a singular WNBA season. Plus, she also became the first rookie to score a triple-double when the Des Moines-born hit one in July against the New York Liberty. To better that, Clark scored a triple-double once again during the game against the Los Angeles Sparks earlier this month. But she still falls behind by a mile when compared to Wilson’s offense, as most would suggest.

The 2x WNBA Champion averages a whopping 27.3 points per game with 11.9 rebounds per game. Meanwhile, Clark averages 19.1 points per game with 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game. Hence, in the current scenario, while Wilson is considered the top contender for the MVP award, Clark was ranked at the sixth spot in honorable mentions in a recently released list by ESPN.

While Swoopes may be right in the GOAT debate, her avoidance of Clark time and again just doesn’t sit right with the fans.

Sheryl Swoopes ignored Caitlin Clark’s Player of the Week award

In late August, Swoopes during an episode of Queens of the Court podcast, acknowledged the turnaround for the Indiana Fever after the Olympic break. In August, the Fever notably just lost a singular game out of six, which reflected that the team had made some major changes to the strategies and the game plans, and Clark was at the center of it. And along with Kelsey Mitchell formed one of the best backcourts this season. But not for Swoopes.

The broadcaster acknowledged Fever’s success and spoke at length about their stars Lexie Hull, Aliyah Boston, and Mitchell. However, she failed to mention Clark during her conversation, which earned her a lot of backlash from fans.

“I’m going to shout out Lexi Hull. I’m a big Lexie Hull fan. Lexie Hull shot the leather off the ball in their game against Seattle. Kelsey Mitchell is just stroking. She’s just shooting the basketball. Aliyah Boston—almost a triple-double! If Indiana continues to play the way they’re playing like this, they too are going to move up in the standings,” she added.

Maybe Swoopes will start acknowledging Clark, once the latter makes it big in the playoffs. Till then the Fever can concentrate on the more difficult tasks ahead.