Shannon Sharpe slams analysts for downplaying Caitlin Clark’s impact

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Shannon Sharplong one of the loudest voices when it comes to showing public support for Caitlin Clark During her first season in the WNBA, she climbed back on her soapbox First recording on monday.

In June, Sharpe joined his First recording co-host Stephen A. Smith criticizing the U.S. Olympic team for leaving Caitlin Clark off the women’s basketball team.

Then, in August, after Seattle Storm star Skylar Diggins-Smith inexplicably bodychecked Caitlin Clark for trying to rouse the crowd on a night when she had broken the rookie assists record, Shannon Sharpe loudly yelled at his Nightcap Podcast co-host Chad Johnson believes other WNBA players are just being petty.

Fast forward to Monday during an appearance by women’s basketball analyst Andraya Carter on First recording, and Shannon Sharpe was once again adamant in his belief that people inside and outside the WNBA, including those at ESPN channel, trying for some reason to downplay the undeniable impact Caitlin Clark has had on women’s basketball this year.

“A lot of this noise came from people who were on this network,” Shannon Sharpe said pointedly. “They were trying to minimize her. They were saying, ‘Well, you give her all this credit, but what about the women who came before her?’ What the women who came before her? What they did cannot be taken away. That has nothing to do with Caitlin Clark!

“But there were a lot of people who tried to keep Caitlin Clark in her place, because what you do when you give her all that shine, you minimize what they’ve done. You can’t minimize Maya Moore or Candace Parker or Lisa Leslie or Lauren Jackson or Diana Taurasi or Seimone Augustus or any of the other great players.

“Caitlin Clark, what she’s doing, it’s not minimizing what they’ve done. But we should have given her credit! We saw the ratings, we saw the merchandise sales, we saw the turnout! But you want to make it about something else. ‘Oh, what about the women who laid the foundation? What about them? What about this?’

“That has nothing to do with Caitlin Clark! Caitlin Clark is a box office star! She does this! And instead of giving her credit, you try to make it look like, ‘Oh, you’re shitting on the old guard. You’ve never talked about the old guard like that.’ No, I’m not letting it go!”