Here we go again. Sheryl Swoopes has once again questioned one of Caitlin Clark’s achievements. This time the Hall of Famer appeared to express some doubts about the Fever star winning the TIME Athlete of the Year honor.
“I don’t think I’m surprised,” Swoopes said, after looking up at the ceiling and a long pause, when asked for her reaction during a segment this week on Gil’s Arena. “I’m curious to know who the other candidates were, but the fact that that’s the very first WNBA player to ever win TIME Magazine Athlete of the Year is pretty special.
“My question is, like the criteria, is it based off of her performance on the court. Which, yeah, she had a great year, or is it more about the impact that she had on the game this season?”
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When it was pointed out that the WNBA saw record viewership numbers and most of the highest-viewed games involved Caitlin Clark, Sheryl Swoopes replied, “No, I think it’s it’s great. Not just for her. I think it’s great for the league. Like, everybody talked about the recognition that she brought to the W this season, so for her to be TIME magazine athlete of the year I think it’s, it’s really great for the league.”
They group then talked about Clark’s quote in the TIME article where she said she wanted to help elevate all of the black women who have been instrumental in building the WNBA and often get overlooked by the media, Sheryl Swoopes made a face and shook her head in as way that could be interpreted a lot of different ways.
In that same TIME article, the magazine very clearly stated why it gave the Athlete of the Year honor to Caitlin Clark in 2024.
“In February, she set the new NCAA Division 1 women’s basketball scoring record,” the article pointed out. “A few weeks later, she broke Hall of Famer Pete Maravich’s mark, making her the top scorer overall.
“Her college championship game between Iowa and South Carolina averaged 18.9 million viewers, becoming the second most watched women’s sporting event, outside the Olympic Games, in the history of U.S. television, with American viewership outdrawing that of each game of the 2024 NBA Finals and World Series.
“And for the first time ever, more people tuned in for the women’s NCAA championship than the men’s. As a pro, she set a rookie record for most three-pointers made in a season, while also setting new all-time WNBA marks for most assists in a season and most assists in a single game.
“She signed a reported $28 million endorsement deal with Nike, the largest ever for a women’s basketball player.
“Clark’s Fever appeared in the most watched WNBA games ever on ABC, CBS, ESPN, and ESPN2. The WNBA attracted an all-time record of more than 54 million unique viewers across all its national broadcasting platforms during the regular season, and the league’s overall attendance jumped 48% year over year to its highest level in more than two decades.
“The Fever broke the WNBA record for home attendance by a single franchise, and Fever games were moved to NBA and NHL arenas in Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., to accommodate the hordes of fans, many donning Clark’s No. 22 jersey. The Washington Mystics-Fever regular-season finale set a new WNBA single-game attendance record of 20,711.”
