Women's Fastbreak On SI

Sue Bird Calls Out ESPN Hosts For 'Hating On' WNBA Playoff Ratings After Caitlin Clark's Exit

Basketball legend Sue Bird is not happy about how Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe are framing the WNBA playoffs' viewership metrics.

Grant Young

Aug 8, 2024; Paris, France; Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe look on before the game between France and Germany in a men's basketball semifinal game during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Accor Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
Aug 8, 2024; Paris, France; Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe look on before the game between France and Germany in a men's basketball semifinal game during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Accor Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

WNBA icon Sue Bird has done a ton to grow the game of women's basketball.

While Bird has since retired, she is still advocating for her beloved sport off the court; primarily through her "A Touch More" podcast with Megan Rapinoe. And in an October 9 episode of this podcast, Bird went off on specific ESPN hosts (Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe) for criticizing the WNBA for its playoff viewership declining after Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever were eliminated.

"Viewership numbers with Caitlin Clark are astronomical. She is a big draw, she brings in all the things," Bird said in the podcast.

"And yes, the games where she's not playing have lower viewership. But in the WNBA playoffs, and we'll use the Semifinals... where Caitlin obviously is not in it cause her team lost, are still breaking records from previous WNBA years, are still cracking a million viewers."

The most viewed game from the WNBA Semifinals series between the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun was Game 5, which drew 984,000 viewers, per Vanshay Murdock. All four games of the New York Liberty vs. Las Vegas Aces Semifinals series had well over 900,000 viewers.

Bird continued, saying, "So these numbers are still really high, and they're still really meaningful... and yet some people continue to flip that... I've seen Stephen A. Smith talk about it, I've seen Shannon Sharpe talk about it. And what I don't understand is, they work for ESPN.

"So why are you hating on a [business] ESPN is in?" she added. "I want to say the semifinal games are up like 130%. And that's without Caitlin."

Bird certainly has a point. And her point will be proven even further if the WNBA Finals breaks previous viewership records, which many are expecting it to do.

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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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