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Shannon Sharpe, lengthy one of many loudest voices on the market in the case of displaying public help for Caitlin Clark throughout her first season within the WNBA, obtained again on his soapbox on First Tackle Monday.
Again in June, Sharpe joined his First Take co-host Stephen A. Smith in lambasting the U.S. Olympic crew for leaving Caitlin Clark off the ladies’s basketball squad.
Then, in August, after Seattle Storm star Skylar Diggins-Smith inexplicably body-checked Caitlin Clark for attempting to get the gang fired up on an evening when she broke the rookie assists file, Shannon Sharpe loudly exclaimed to his Nightcap podcast co-host Chad Johnson his perception that different WNBA gamers are simply being petty.
Quick ahead to Monday throughout an look by girls’s basketball analyst Andraya Carter on First Take, and Shannon Sharpe was as soon as once more adamant in his perception that individuals in and out of the WNBA, together with these at ESPN, are, for some motive, attempting to downplay the inarguable influence Caitlin Clark has had on girls’s basketball this yr.
“Loads of this noise got here by folks that have been sitting on this community,” Shannon Sharpe stated emphatically. “They tried to reduce her. Saying, ‘Properly you giving her all this credit score, what concerning the girls that got here earlier than her?’ What the ladies got here earlier than? What they did can’t be taken away. That ain’t obtained nothing to do with Caitlin Clark!
“However there was lots of people that attempted to ensure they maintain Caitlin Clark in her place as a result of what you’re doing if you happen to give her all this shine, you reduce what they executed. You may’t reduce Maya Moore or Candace Parker or Lisa Leslie of Lauren Jackson or Diana Taurasi or Seimone Augustus or any of the opposite nice gamers.
“Caitlin Clark, what she’s doing, doesn’t reduce what they’ve executed. However we must always’ve been giving her the credit score! We noticed the rankings, we noticed the merchandise gross sales, we noticed the attendance! However y’all wish to make it about one thing else. ‘Oh, what concerning the girls who laid the muse? What about them? What about it?’
“That ain’t obtained nothing to do with Caitlin Clark! Caitlin Clark is field workplace! She’s doing this! And as an alternative of giving her credit score, y’all attempting to make it about, ‘Oh y’all poo-poo-ing the outdated guard. Y’all by no means talked concerning the outdated guard like this.’ Nah, I ain’t gonna let it slide!”
