SUMMARY
- Sheryl Swoopes' poor research had her believing that Caitlin Clark had five years to break the NCAA's women's basketball scoring record.
- Clark has only been in the NCAA for four years and beat Kelsey Plum's record under 139 games which was set by the WNBA star.
Sheryl Swoopes is a legend in women’s basketball for various reasons. The 52-year-old was the first female athlete to sign with the WNBA formed in 1997. The former Houston Comets player ended up winning four championships and three league MVP awards. Overall, she was an absolute star on both ends of the floor. Legends like her often share their opinions much like how Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley critique the modern-day NBA. However, Swoopes’ comments were quite unreasonable for Caitlin Clark.
The Iowa Hawkeyes star recently dethroned Kelsey Plum as the NCAA’s all-time leader in points. Clark has also broken multiple records from the past while also being on the verge of breaking Pete Maravich’s NCAA scoring record as well. However, Swoopes had an interesting take that didn’t strike well with Clark or her fanbase.
Sheryl Swoopes questioned the legitimacy of Caitlin Clark’s scoring record
During an appearance on Gilbert Arena’s podcast, Sheryl Swoopes shared her opinion on Clark breaking the record. She said, “Records are made and set to be broken. But if you’re going to break a record… to me if it’s legitimate, you have to break that record in the same amount of time that [the other] player set it in.”
She added, “So if Kelsey Plum set that in four years, well Caitlin should have broken that record in four years. But because there’s a COVID year and then there’s another year, you know what I mean? So she’s already had an extra year to break that record.” Sheryl thought Clark was participating in her fifth year due to the NCAA giving players an extra year to compete due to the pandemic.
Sheryl Swoopes apologized to Caitlin Clark
It turns out, Caitlin Clark managed to break Kelsey Plum’s record in her fourth year with the Hawkeyes. In fact, Clark broke the record after 126 appearances while Plum set the record in 139 games played. Sheryl Swoopes ended up reaching out to Caitlin via Angel Reese, who currently plays for the LSU Tigers.
According to The Athletic, Swoopes said, “A couple of weeks ago, I reached out to [Angel Reese] and had a really good conversation with Angel over the phone and sent a message to Caitlin. She responded. She and I went back and forth. I won’t share what she said, I’ll leave that to her if she wants to share. But I will say, what I said to her was, ‘I made a mistake in saying it was your fifth year when it is your fourth.’”
Don’t be a Sheryl. pic.twitter.com/iVXkuxJa5P
— 🐤 Hawkeye Hunz (@HawkeyeHunz) February 9, 2024
Swoopes and Clark’s beef went viral on the internet. Fans even wore t-shirts that said “Don’t be a Sheryl” to one of Clark’s games. But it is great that Swoopes admitted her mistake and understood that Caitlin wasn’t a part of the group of athletes that had an extra year.