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ESPN's Scott Van Pelt Gives Diana Taurasi a Caitlin Clark Reality Check

ESPN broadcaster Scott Van Pelt kept the receipts on Diana Taurasi's controversial comments on Caitlin Clark back in April.

Grant Young

Nov 13, 2023; Orchard Park, New York, USA; ESPN announcer Scott Van Pelt prior to the game between the Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Nov 13, 2023; Orchard Park, New York, USA; ESPN announcer Scott Van Pelt prior to the game between the Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images / Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

While Phoenix Mercury icon Diana Taurasi will go down as one of the greatest women's basketball players of all time when she decides to retire (which may be very soon), she'll have a tough time living down a statement she made about Fever rookie Caitlin Clark back in April.

When speaking with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt about what the WNBA will have in store when Clark (who was then still an Iowa Hawkeye) arrives, Taurasi notoriously said, "Look SVP... reality is coming.

"There's levels to this thing... You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds but you're gonna come [play] with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time."

While Clark may have needed a brief grace period at the beginning of the season, not only is Clark's Fever team headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 (and ahead of Taurasi's Mercury in the standings), but Clark appears to have finished the season as a consensus top-five WNBA MVP candidate.

It's worth noting that Taurasi has since shown Clark a lot of praise, and the two have shown a clear mutual respect for each other on the court. But that didn't keep Van Pelt from throwing a little jab at Taurasi's comments during Thursday night's episode of ESPN's SportsCenter.

"Speaking of legends, speaking of Connecticut, I think Diana Taurasi had it wrong. I think she was the reality," Van Pelt said about Clark, per X user @kenswift. "I think Caitlin, they should call her 'The Reality' because she was coming, and she's here in this league. She has been great."

Van Pelt clearly kept the receipts on that one.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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