Caitlin Clark was recently hailed as AP’s Female Athlete of The Year, something that Sheryl Swoopes was also recognized for back in 1993 when she was playing for the Texas Tech Lady Raiders. As pointed out by one sports analyst, Sheryl Swoopes, a known critic of Calrl, is noticeably silent over the latter’s new accolade.
In one of her recent YouTube videos, analyst Rachel DeMita pointed out how other female basketball players who have received the same acknowledgment (Caitlin Clark so far is only the fourth), Sheryl Swoopes was the only one who had yet to congratulate Clark on the recognition publicly.
“What I thought was interesting is that Rebecca Lobo and Candace Parker both publicly congratulated Caitlin on winning this award and of course, the third person on this list did not.”
DeMita also touched on why she thinks Caitlin Clark was chosen—multiple times and by multiple entities—as a top athlete of the year. Per DeMita, it was more about Clark’s influence and impact rather than her stats and performance.
“What I think a lot of people are missing when we talk about these global and national awards that Caitlin Clark is winning this year, it is more about her impact on the sport and how she elevated an entire sport. It’s more about that and less about how she played on the court.”
Sheryl Swoopes Downplays Caitlin Clark TIME Award: “Who are The Other Candidates?”
Back when Caitlin Clark broke basketball news when she was hailed as TIME Magazine’s 2024 Athlete of The Year, the Indiana Fever star’s name garnered both congratulatory messages, as well as brutal opinions from doubters and naysayers. Sherly Swoopes was one of the many who shared her thoughts on the award given to Clark, and she raised one question about it.
Despite admitting that Clark’s win is not surprising, Sheryl Swoopes downplayed the recognition by questioning who Clark was pitted against during the selection phase.
“I don’t think I’m surprised,” Swoopes said. “I’m curious to know who the other candidates were, but the fact that that’s the very first WNBA player to ever win TIME Magazine Athlete of the Year is pretty special.”
“My question is, the criteria, is it based off of her performance on the court, which she had a great year or is it more about the impact that she had on the game this season?”
Gil & Sheryl Swoopes reaction to Caitlin Clark being awarded TIME magazines Athlete of the year Award ‼️‼️‼️#FeverRising #WNBA pic.twitter.com/ZIbkKELgkf
— Krysta (@Krysta____) December 11, 2024
In that same podcast, Sheryl Swoopes was also asked for her opinion on Caitlin Clark’s infamous “white privilege” statement, to which she was speechless over.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
