Women's Fastbreak On SI

Sue Bird Explains How Caitlin Clark Makes Up For Lack of WNBA Dunking

Contrary to Shaquille O'Neal's sentiment, WNBA legend Sue Bird discussed how Caitlin Clark is a solution for women's basketball's shortage on dunking.

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

During his appearance on the "Unapologetically Angel" show (which is hosted by Chicago Sky superstar Angel Reese) last month, NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal used Caitlin Clark as a case for lowering WNBA rims.

"A pretty girl dunking on the rim? I'm watching that all day," Shaq said. "It's about seeing stuff you ain't supposed to see... Why you think people love Caitlin Clark? Besides her skills?"

"She can shoot threes from logo," Reese responded.

"We never seen that before. That's my point," Shaq said. "She's doing stuff we've never seen before. [I've] never seen nobody [shoot logo threes] on a consistent basis."

However, rather than use Clark as a case for making WNBA players able to dunk as Shaq did, WNBA legend Sue Bird instead claimed that Clark is actually the solution to dunk-related sentiment regarding women's basketball.

"Fire was going [in women's basketball]... But Caitlin came, and she poured gasoline all over that thing," Bird said during her November 13 appearance on "The Deal Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly". "

"And she broke through, I think, with her logo threes. [This] was, we finally had the antidote to dunking," Bird continued. "'Cause all anybody ever wants to say is... 'You're not worth it. I can probably beat you. You can't even dunk.'

"But now it's 'Oh s***, that girl is hitting logo threes? I don't think I can do that.' And everybody respects that. Men, women, there's a respect factor," she added.

So while Shaq and Bird are essentially saying the same thing about Clark's impact, they're pretty much making opposite cases for how this impact affects the sentiment around women's basketball's lack of dunking.

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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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