Caitlin Clark's biggest critic absent from game broadcast

The Sheryl Swoopes-Caitlin Clark dynamic is one of the weirder stories in sports this season.

For whatever reason, it’s become apparent that the WNBA legend isn’t the biggest fan of the new women’s basketball sensation. So when Clark and the Indiana Fever visited the Dallas Wings on Sunday, all eyes would be on what Swoopes might say since she works as an analyst in Dallas.

But WNBA fans never got the chance because Swoopes wasn’t in the broadcast booth. Instead, fellow women’s basketball legend Nancy Lieberman called the game alongside Ron Thulin.

Immediately, the internet went up in a firestorm that Swoopes was “ replaced ” or “ got pulled ” in a “ broadcast shakeup .”

While that certainly makes for exotic headlines, the truth is that Swoopes, Lieberman, and former WNBA champion Fran Harris were announced as analysts for the Wings in April before the season started and have rotated throughout the season. In fact, Harris called the Wings-Lynx game just two days before on Friday without any commotion.

Furthermore, all of this hyperbole around Sunday’s Wings broadcast schedule ignores the fact that Swoopes already called one of Clark’s games earlier this season, a preseason contest in May, where she even interviewed her after the game ! (Hence the screengrab above.) This came after Swoopes originally found controversy in February when she took issue with Clark’s scoring records at Iowa and first emerged as one of her most vocal critics.

However… after they cordially met in May for an interview, it wasn’t the end of the story. In fact, far from it. As the WNBA season has progressed, Sheryl Swoopes has been called out by the likes of Elle Duncan and Stephen A. Smith for her continued dissing of Caitlin Clark. (Although Duncan later apologized for taking Swoopes out of context .) She’s downplayed the hard fouls that Clark has received. And another clip just last week went viral where the Wings were showing the WNBA players of the week, included Clark and, Swoopes fell conspicuously silent for a lengthy stretch .

So what really happened here, and why wasn’t Swoopes in the booth on Sunday?

With three analysts on board, Swoopes was never likely to call the game in the first place. Lieberman called games on June 3rd against the Aces and July 5th against the Mercury. In all likelihood, it was just her time in the rotation, and it just so happened to fall on a date when the Fever were coming to town. These schedules could have even been decided before the season began, and if it weren’t for Swoopes’ consistent criticism of Clark, then it would be a total non-story.

Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that it was probably best for everyone involved for Swoopes not to call the Fever game and avoid what could have become a very awkward dynamic, especially considering it was broadcast nationally on NBATV to a large audience.

Had Swoopes served as the analyst, every word and syllable would have been scrutinized and dissected, and folks would be looking for a reason to be upset or make a story out of it, whether it be fans of Caitlin Clark, Sheryl Swoopes, or both. It would have overshadowed whatever was happening on the floor, where the Fever continued their hot streak in a 100-93 victory thanks to 36 points from Kelsey Mitchell and 28 points from Clark.

The Wings and Fever are scheduled to play again on September 15th in Indiana, a game set to be broadcast locally in Dallas on Bally Sports Southwest. If Swoopes doesn’t call that game either, then it might be a more fitting time to ask if that is a coincidence, too.

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