“While decisions like these are never easy, it is also imperative that we remain bold and assertive in the pursuit of our goals, which includes maximizing our talent and bringing another WNBA championship back to Indiana,” shared Indiana Fever president Kelly Krauskopf in a statement. It was an official announcement of parting ways with Fever’s head coach Christie Sides following her two seasons in the role.

Just a few days later, her position was filled by former Connecticut Sun coach Stephanie White. Since then, White’s potential impact on the Fever in the upcoming season has been the popular discussion. But there was another angle to this story that Sheryl Swoopes recently brought to light—the reason behind firing Sides.

“I think Christie did as good of a job as she could have… managing all of the craziness, all of the Caitlin mania, all of the hype, all of the media. It was just so much that came with that… There was so much she had to deal with,” expressed Swoopes during the latest episode of her podcast, ‘You Might Also Like: Levels to This with Sheryl Swoopes and Terrika Foster-Brasby.’

These were her words after mostly staying quiet about the Fever and their standout player since the offseason began. But, feeling that Sides deserved more respect, she let out her perspective while discussing the coaches in the WNBA. And she wouldn’t be far off. The 22-year-old Iowa native, Clark, did bring a quite the viewership with her.

In the month of May alone, the WNBA saw up to a 94% increase in arena attendance. Even the Fever saw sold-out games one after another since drafting the No. 1 pick. No one can deny that fans usually came to Fever games to catch a glimpse of Clark playing. Averaging 19.1 points and a league-high 8.4 assists per game, Clark grew more dominant with each game, starting a streak of record-breaking performances. Yet, despite all the expectations and challenges, Sides kept navigating the roster.

She even led the team to their first playoff berth since 2016. Though they ended up being eliminated in the first round, the effort behind it was quite evident—and Swoopes took notice. But it isn’t the first time Swoopes has commented on Fever or Clark’s popularity being a challenge.

Sheryl Swoopes suggested Caitlin Clark’s popularity could be a challenge for the teammates too

The WNBA legend’s constant commentary was a hot topic throughout the 2024 WNBA season. To start, during ‘Gil’s Arena’ YouTube show, Swoopes made a controversial comment, inaccurately claiming that then-Iowa sensation Clark was in her fifth year during the 2023-24 season. She even implied this diminished her NCAA scoring record. In reality, Clark was in her fourth season at Iowa when she made history. But Swoopes didn’t stop there—she even hinted at potential turmoil in the Fever’s locker room.

“There’s a lot of other s*** going on, that other [Fever] players are like ‘This ain’t where I want to be’… As a player, do you want to continue to stay in a situation where you keep yourself vulnerable to all of the hate that you know is going to come to you if you’re not playing the way everybody thinks you should be playing?” Presumably, this was due to the attention surrounding Clark, but at the time, she had no evidence to back her words.

Her comments drew backlash from the women’s basketball community, with media personalities like Stephen A. Smith and Nancy Lieberman leading the criticism. Her recent comment, however, might not meet a similar reaction considering Side’s contribution.