Over the past few days, anyone with a platform and a microphone has weighed in on Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark and her value to the WNBA.
Whether she is responsible for the increased eyeballs on the league is not debatable, but when Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter fouled her in the Fever’s victory last Saturday, the discussion became different.
Carter was assessed an after-game flagrant 1 foul and the ire of some when she declined to talk about Clark in the postgame press conference but went straight to social media to proclaim Clark’s only skill was a three-point shot.
Enter Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman into the discussion, as she commented on what she would have done if Carter fouled her in that moment.
‘If I were Caitlin Clark, I would’ve punched her in the face,’ Lieberman said on Run It Back on FanDuel TV. ‘I’m from New York, and I would have told her to, ‘(expletive) off.’ That would actually cure the problem.’
Well, then.
Lieberman praised Carter as a good, tough, physical basketball player but then ripped Clark’s teammates.
‘Where’s Caitlin Clark’s teammates? I would be pissed as (expletive) at my teammates,’ she said, saying that some sports greats like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky had enforcers to protect them. ‘It’s (expletive). Someone has to come to this kid’s, I don’t want to say rescue.’
Clark, who is averaging 15.6 points, 6.4 assists, and 5.1 rebounds a game, is back in action on Friday when the 2-9 Fever take on the winless Washington Mystics.