Four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird is a big fan of this year’s rookie class and credits their game with helping grow women’s basketball to new heights. But the legendary women’s basketball player believes that the narrative surrounding Caitlin Clark’s reception in the pros was just one big misunderstanding.
During an appearance on the “Good Game with Sarah Spain” podcast, Bird addressed the “narrative” surrounding the league, specifically as it pertained to the notion that Clark’s popularity didn’t sit well with the league’s veterans.
Caitlin Clark, #22 of Team WNBA, looks on during a WNBA All-Star Game team practice at Footprint Center on July 19, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
“For the remainder of time, Caitlin will go down as, whatever you want to call it – the one who made the change, this pivotal person. She will 100%. But in other leagues, it was never like when LeBron (James) came, ‘Oh Michael Jordan didn’t matter.’ And for some reason that happened (in the WNBA).”
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Bird, 43, went on to suggest that competitiveness of the WNBA was misinterpreted as some kind of hatred toward the former Iowa star.
“It caused this whole thing when the reality was no player felt a way towards Caitlin. Everybody was very welcoming, inviting, and they mistook, I think, competitive talk with hate – with hating on somebody.”
For her part, Clark has certainly made similar statements about her treatment in the league. Speaking about the controversial flagrant foul committed by Chennedy Carter last month, Clark didn’t make it much of an issue.
Caitlin Clark, #22 of the Indiana Fever, shoots the ball against the Dallas Wings at the College Park Center on July 17, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
“No, basketball’s competitive. I get it,” Clark said at the time. “Sometimes your emotions get the best of you – it happened to me multiple times throughout the course of my career. People are competitive. It is what it is.”
Bird did admit that it’s a “thin line” between competitiveness and hatred, but that’s not represented in the WNBA.
“I think the majority of WNBA players – with their play, with their talk – it was just competition, not hate for a person.”
Sue Bird, #10 of the Seattle Storm, reacts after losing to the Las Vegas Aces 97-92 in the final game of her career during Game Four of the 2022 WNBA Playoffs semifinals at Climate Pledge Arena on September 6, 2022, in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
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Bird, a 13-time All-Star, also praised Clark’s impact this season.
“Her long distance 3s – I’ve always said this, we finally got the antidote to dunking. All we heard our entire existence was, ‘You guys are boring, you don’t dunk’ … In a sense, I think she snapped people out of this trance that was really negative towards women’s basketball, and now she’s brought this huge group.”
Heading into the league’s month-long break ahead of the Summer Olympics, Bird said her “current” favorite for Rookie of the Year is Clark.
“We’ll see where the stream goes.”
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