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Charles Barkley Rips ‘Petty’ WNBA Media for Negative Coverage of Caitlin Clark

Kristen Wong

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Amid the WNBA’s ongoing media tussle surrounding Caitlin Clark, TNT analyst Charles Barkley sent a fiery message shaming WNBA personalities for the negative narratives they’ve knowingly spread this season.

Barkley, better known for his NBA analysis, doesn’t have much skin in the game when it comes to media coverage of the Indiana Fever rookie. As someone on the outside looking in, though, Barkley doesn’t like what he sees.

“These ladies—and I’m a WNBA fan—they cannot have f---ed this Caitlin Clark thing up any worse if they tried,” Barkley said on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Wednesday. “People believe what we say on television. Just because people don’t like you or your personality, they can’t get on TV and slander you. It’s just total bulls---.

“This girl is incredible. The number of attention, eyeballs she’s brought to college and the pros, and for these women to have this petty jealousness. You’re saying to yourself, ‘Damn, what is going on here?’ And the thing I love about her, she never says a word. But these ladies, who I love and respect their game, they couldn’t have f---ed this thing up any worse. There’s been so much negativity.”

Barkley notably declined to name any specific members of the media, but based on the WNBA’s recent viral discourse, one may assume he’s referring to the simmering feud between WNBA icons Sheryl Swoopes and Nancy Lieberman.

Earlier this week, Lieberman discussed her fractured relationship with Swoopes dating back to February when Swoopes misstated a few crucial facts about Clark, who was in her senior season at Iowa. Swoopes incorrectly said Clark, who had just set the all-time Division I scoring record, benefitted from an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic.

“I called [Swoopes] as a friend, and I said, ‘You can say whatever you want, you can have your own opinion about anybody, but you do have to get the statistics right,’” Lieberman said. “Our relationship pretty much is not happening at this point…My life is going to be good or great with or without Sheryl Swoopes.”

In response to the mounting criticism, Swoopes shared screenshots of a conversation she had with Clark in which Swoopes admitted she “made a mistake” and congratulated Clark for her accomplishments.

Though not formally members of the WNBA media, veteran Diana Taurasi and UConn coach Geno Auriemma have also made disparaging comments about Clark’s rookie season within the past year.

Following an ugly 0-5 start, Clark and the Fever clinched their first playoff spot since 2016 with seven games left in the regular season.

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Kristen Wong

KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

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