Let's give Sheryl Swoopes a break about Caitlin Clark after the latest non-controversy

Going back to Caitlin Clark’s college days at Iowa, there has been a brewing perception that WNBA great Sheryl Swoopes isn’t the biggest fan of the breakout of the Indiana Fever rookie guard.

While Swoopes said she was excited for Clark’s WNBA debut, was very professional while interviewing Clark during the preseason and has apologized in the past for inaccurate comments about Clark’s college scoring record, that hasn’t stopped the criticism Swoopes has received, including a recent diatribe from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.

Well, the controversy began anew on Tuesday evening during a segment from Swoopes’ broadcast of the Las Vegas Aces and Dallas Wings game.

While her broadcast partner Ron Thulin talked about Clark and Minnesota Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier taking home WNBA Player of the Week honors, Swoopes went silent after Thulin’s commentary and didn’t discuss either honor before the broadcast went on to discuss the Aces-Wings game.

Sheryl Swoopes goes completely silent for 50 seconds as her co-caster talks about Caitlin Clark winning player of the week pic.twitter.com/CEeoSduczG

— Clark Report (@CClarkReport) August 28, 2024

That prompted scrutiny that Swoopes was showing her bias against Clark to the point where she allegedly refused to even mention the Fever guard’s accomplishment.

That absolutely feels like an assumption too far, regardless of whatever Swoopes’ personal feelings about Clark really are. While we can’t know for sure exactly why Swoopes didn’t talk about the WNBA Players of the Week, she did share this comment from a fan on her Twitter (X) account about why she may have been silent in the moment. It’s pretty understandable reasoning.

I watched the game live and thought I missed something. What did they expect @airswoopes22 to say or do? The PbP guy was busy talking about the awards & schedule. Sounds like Swoopes did a good job & let him do his job.

— C.E.D.R.I.C. (@Official_C_E_D) August 28, 2024

Swoopes was fielding lots of hate on her feed over the moment and even mentioned that it’s the angry WNBA fans in her mentions that she understandably has a problem with, not Clark.

The crazy thing is I enjoy her game. It's them I don't like! They are so mean, evil, ugly and disrespectful.

— Sheryl Swoopes (@airswoopes22) August 28, 2024

This whole controversy feels a bit exhausted by now, as it’s very possible Swoopes just kept silent during the game broadcast as not to offend fans with any commentary on Clark that could even vaguely be perceived as negative. She’s in a tough spot right now when discussing Clark, good or bad.

It’s better in these situations to take people at their word and just let it go. If Swoopes is willing to come out and say she enjoys Clark’s game and just doesn’t enjoy the negative comments online, let’s just listen to her and move on to something else. That’s a pretty relatable stance to have, to be honest.

The problem doesn’t seem to be between Swoopes and Clark; it seems to just be unnecessary noise coming from Swoopes’ critics.