Though Caitlin Clark has endured a lot of intentional fouls in the WNBA so far, the 22-year-old is no saint herself. That’s what Gilbert Arenas believes. Appearing on Gil’s Arena podcast, former WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes pointed out that when the Indiana Fever rookie is in possession of the ball, she pushes off players. This is quite noticeable as well in some highlights from her games. However, 3x NBA All-Star Arenas has a reason Clark gets away with this.

On the podcast, Agent Zero mentioned the advantage Caitlin has over other players who are bulkier than her. “She has that advantage… like an Allen Iverson or [Stephen] Curry. Because they’re light, they can hit you, do all the little cheap stuff. You hit them, they gonna flop and fall. That’s just the benefit of being a guard,” No Chill Gil claimed on the Gil’s Arena podcast. He further detailed his reasoning by taking Shaquille O’Neal as an example.

Gil explained if Shaq hit him, it would seem harder than if the 5x NBA champ hit Arenas’ co-host and former NBA forward Kenyon Martin. Notably, the discussion emerged from Swoopes claiming Clark’s hard foul incident with Chennedy Carter received more uproar than Reese’s with Alyssa Thomas.

Arenas mentioned the reason for this being Reese portraying herself as a more rugged player while Reese built her game as a “flopper”. This was when the former WNBA star pointed out that Clark herself indulged in intentional pushing. After his explanation of the Fever rookie having an “Allen Iverson advantage,” Gil mentioned Reese no longer needs to maintain that villain image which she intentionally stated in college days.

Do smaller players get away with fouls?

It is a common perception that the refs let lighter players get away with a little more than the bulkier players. And it’s true that Allen Iverson was among the former category of players, with exceptional athletic abilities. His build allowed him to be real quick and his crossovers have been the most effective ones. As for getting away with the fouls, it’s said his palming violation was often overlooked.

However, he lost that privilege once after an altercation with Steve Javy. “Iverson had threatened Javy that he was going to kill him and you know we, as an officiating staff, felt that Iverson should have been suspended. They didn’t suspend him. They just fined him,” Tim Donaghy said in an interview with DJ VLAD.

He further mentioned that because of dissatisfaction with the league’s way of handling the instance, the officiating staff planned to bring justice in their own way. “So I had the next game that he was playing in and the three of us officiated… We went out and each of us had called palming violation on him that night,” Donaghy stated. Donaghy himself mentioned in the interview that AI was often let away with his palming violation. This is enough proof that there are exceptions in the league for fouls as well.

Stay tuned for more such updates. And to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, had to say about the marketing genius, watch this video.