Women's Fastbreak On SI

Nancy Lieberman Says Friendship With Sheryl Swoopes Ended Over Caitlin Clark

A relationship between two women's basketball icons deteriorated due to a conversation about Caitlin Clark.

Grant Young

Jul 20, 2024; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Team WNBA guard Caitlin Clark (22) against the USA Women's National Team during the 2024 WNBA All Star Game at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 20, 2024; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Team WNBA guard Caitlin Clark (22) against the USA Women's National Team during the 2024 WNBA All Star Game at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The ongoing saga that centers around WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes' apparent aversion to acknowledging Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark's accomplishments took a strange, saddening turn on Monday.

Nancy Lieberman (who went out of her way to praise Clark during the broadcast of the Fever's most recent game) made a Monday appearance on "The Stephen A. Smith" show.

While there, Lieberman spoke out about how a conversation about the Fever rookie ruined her and Swoopes' friendship.

"[Swoopes said] that Caitlin was... a fifth-year senior, she was taking 40 shots a game, her records were illegitimate," Lieberman said, referencing Swoopes' controversial comments during her appearance on the “Gil’s Arena” YouTube show back in January.

"I got off the treadmill and I called [Swoopes] as a friend," Lieberman said. "And I said, 'you know, you can say whatever you want. You can have your own opinion about anybody. But you do have to get the statistics right.'

"I mean, the facts matter," Lieberman continued, before noting that if Swoopes had just admitted that she had the facts wrong after saying them then the entire controversy would have blown over.

"Well, she got upset with me on the phone. And I was like 'Sheryl, I'm not doing anything to hurt you. I'm just sharing.' And so our relationship pretty much is not happening at this point. I tried to talk to her at the Final Four, she didn't want to talk to me," Lieberman said.

Swoopes has responded to this video on X, saying, "Now here you go! I get what you trying to do wit ya boy @stephenasmith but it ain't working. You know good and well what happened. And ditto...my life is good without you too(and him). You wanna go there?"

While Swoopes surely has her own version of the story, the bottom line is that what was once a friendship between two women's basketball icons has deteriorated over a conversation about Clark.

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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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