Sheryl Swoopes turned the NCAA Queen, Caitlin Clark’s, fans bitter when she questioned her on breaking Kelsey Plum’s NCAA women’s basketball’s all-time leading scorer record. The controversy died a slow death, and it earned Swoopes the tag of being a Clark hater. Since then, fans and analysts alike have sometimes slammed the 4x WNBA champion. In a recent episode drop, the Hall of Famer was back to ‘Gil’s Arena’, from where the controversy had gathered pace, and this time too the No. 22’s fans did not take her statements in a positive light. One such analyst who supports Clark came to the fore to give Swoopes a taste of her own medicine.

In a recent episode of ‘The Ricky Cobb Show’, the host weighed in on Swoopes’s recent criticism of Clark. At the same time, he also analyzed the 53-year-old’s MVP season numbers. “All right that’s not dominating. Sheryl Swoopes again checking in on the subject of Catilin Clark. I realized Sheryl Swoopes must talk about other things besides Caitlin Clark. But the only time that we tend to notice her is when she has said something a) about Caitlin Clark and b) it seems to be stupid. She said that 20 points, 8+ assists, 6 rebounds a game is not dominating. Well, I assume that that means that you never dominated at all then Sheryl Swoopes,” Cobb stated.

With 329 assists, Clark has the WNBA single-season assists record along with having the highest points by a rookie in the league. During her game against the Dallas Wings on Sunday, Clark hit a decent 35 points, taking over Seimone Augustus’s record of 744 points in a rookie season. Not only that, Clark has numerous accomplishments to her name, including being the first rookie to have any triple-doubles (2.) Overall, the 22-year-old has scored a whopping 19.5 points per game with 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game and is the primary contender for the Rookie of the Year award.

“Mike Shipley 09 from X doing a little bit of research here. Sheryl Swoopes, a 3 times WNBA MVP. You can see her numbers here from her MVP seasons. Caitlin Clark almost doubling her in assist in her best of those three seasons. Caitlin Clark scoring about at the same rate, rebounding at about the same rate a little better than a couple of those season. But yeah if you look at it you add up the points, rebounds and assists Caitlin Clark is having a better season overall statistically than any of Sheryl’s 3 MVP years and as my teenage daughter might say to Sheryl Swoopes. ‘You played yourself because guess what if Caitlin Clark’s not dominant, neither were you,” Cobb enunciated.

Taking note of those numbers, Cobb compared them to that of Swoopes’s MVP years. Swoopes was named the MVP thrice in the league in 2000, 2002, and 2005. In 2000, Swoopes scored 20.7 points per game with 6.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, helping the Houston Comets bag their fourth Championship title. Missing the 2001 season with a knee injury, Swoopes came back strong in 2002. She swept another MVP honor, hitting 18.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game.

Her last MVP came during the 2005 season when she scored 18.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game. All these numbers, when compared with those of Clark’s rookie numbers, mark that while Clark has dished out double the assists than Swoopes, the points tally is somewhat close. Whereas in the rebounds stat, Clark has somewhat comparable boards for the 2000 season and rebounded more than Swoopes in the next two of her MVP seasons. Thus, according to the analyst if Clark isn’t dominating then Swoopes too didn’t. While her statement might come off as criticism, she had also praised the Des Moines-born.

Sheryl Swoopes compliments Caitlin Clark for the turnaround

When Clark started her WNBA career, she struggled with physicality and pace. In the quest to find her rhythm and chemistry in the Indiana Fever group, the guard kept on trying her best. However, her hopes materialized after the Olympics break when the number one pick of the year started scoring big numbers and also got her team’s support. All this pushed the Fever to the playoffs.

Taking cognizance of the same, Swoopes enumerated “To me, what Caitlin’s been able to do in a short period of time has been very impressive… I still don’t think she’s dominating, but she’s a different player than she was in the first half of the season.” Since the Olympics break, Clark has averaged an exceptional 24.3 points per game with 8.92 assists per game.

She won the Player of the Week for two consecutive weeks apart from bagging the WNBA Rookie of the Month and Eastern Conference Player of the Month for August. All this is a testament to her strong spirit. Hopefully, fans will not concentrate much on Swoopes’s reactions towards Clark and instead will choose to see the positives.