During the Indiana Fever’s thrilling victory on Saturday, guard Chennedy Carter of the Chicago Sky hard- fouled Caitlin Clark, causing a stir in the sports world.
Carter called out Clark’s performance in a Threads post, and the drama continued into Monday. Stephen A. Smith, Monica McNutt, Shannon Sharpe, and even host Molly Qerim weighed in on the issue as the first topic of discussion on ESPN’s “First Take”
Smith stated that he thought there were WNBA players who were envious of Clark’s attention since joining the league and that race might be a factor in it.
Some WNBA girls, or young ladies, harbor jealousies toward Caitlin Clark. “She’s a White girl who recently joined the league,” Smith remarked. “She has suddenly become prominent. She has yet to establish her worth. It’s not even that they believe they are superior to her; at this point, they most likely already know that because they have been playing at a level that she has only recently attained.
“What gives rise to the resentment stems from the years of hard work, dedication, and dedication to uplift the women’s professional basketball league and its brand. Their efforts were all in vain until a girl emerged, took the league by storm, and excelled in the sport at the collegiate level, accomplishing in a short amount of time what they were unable to.”
“One would think that folks would be smart enough to recognize and appreciate that about Caitlin Clark – piggyback off of that to their benefit and praise her and support her for it while competing on the court against her.”
Smith stated that he wasn’t overly worried about Carter’s past or even the specific play in which she was involved. He desired to contextualize everything.
You know there’s something a little more involved when you do that to someone who is now the WNBA’s face. To be fair, though, I have seen a report that purports to show that Caitlin Clark initially elbowed her out of retaliation; I understand that part. Let’s not forget that she called her the B-word and hip-checked her from behind before pushing… All of that is received. That is during a fierce competition. We will not exaggerate that.
“What we’re going to do is give the level of appreciation that it deserves in terms of the venom and potential hostility that exists toward this ‘golden girl’ who happens to be White and how the WNBA is promoting her.”
On Sunday, Carter’s infraction was raised from a common foul to a flagrant-1. Beyond that, she didn’t receive any more punishment.
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