Shannon Sharpe is one of Caitlin Clark’s fiercest defenders in the media.
He recently called out the WNBA for its “jealousy” of Clark after Skylar Diggins-Smith of the Seattle Storm body-checked the Indiana Fever guard in mid-August. Sharpe lamented those actions then, and he did so again when talking about the flagrant fouls Clark has received throughout her rookie season.
This past week, the Chicago Sky’s Diamond DeShields was called for a flagrant foul—deemed a non-basketball play—against Clark. That, in turn, created another controversy after a reporter distanced herself from a Chicago Sun-Times headline and photo choice, which seemed to unfairly place the spotlight on DeShields, who fouled Clark twice in 40 seconds.
“Ocho, 17 percent of the WNBA’s flagrant fouls this season have been committed against Caitlin Clark,” Sharpe told his Nightcap co-host, Chad Johnson. “The Chicago Sky were responsible for 80 percent of the flagrant fouls committed against Clark. But you know what, Ocho? ‘It’s the ‘great white hype. There’s nothing, Shannon. You just want to support that white girl.’ She busting y’all a**…
“There’s some women, y’all had a lot to say… ‘If you like Caitlin Clark, you hate Angel. And if you love Angel, you can’t say anything good about Caitlin Clark.’ Y’all can’t tell me what the F to say. I’m going to say what I want to say.”
“Now, back to my originally scheduled programming, Caitlin Clark, doing the thing on them, Ocho,” continued Sharpe. “…I thought these women would know, I thought they would know the way they talking about it. One of them coached, they cover the game, they got podcasts and they all cover all of these sports… She’s sharp on both sides, cutting a** left and right.”
Shannon Sharpe on why 17% of the WNBA Flagrant Fouls have been committed against 1 player. #WNBA #feverrising #caitlinclark
Full video here https://t.co/K1rMOf6Z5N pic.twitter.com/cUDjWdffX2
— Ken Swift (@kenswift) September 1, 2024
Sharpe’s frustration with Clark’s treatment extends beyond the recent incident with DeShields.
“I get it, but I’m just trying to figure out how 17 percent of the flagrant fouls…Ocho, if unnecessary roughness happened to one player 17 percent of the time, that’s not an anomaly,” said Sharpe. “Too many things that are coincidences are not a coincidence. Ocho, if you get five speeding tickets in a year, they ain’t picking on you; you just drive fast. That’s what that is.”
This isn’t the first time we’ll see commentary about Clark getting flagrantly fouled, and it certainly won’t be the last. When Chennedy Carter fouled Clark earlier this season, a never-ending chorus of sports media members (Matt Barnes, Mike Golic, etc.) weighed in, while The Chicago Tribune was lambasted for referring to the foul as an “assault.”
No outlets are claiming Clark is getting assaulted, and neither is Sharpe. He’s merely pointing out the pattern of aggressive play against Clark. He’s right that 17 percent of the league’s flagrant fouls are against Clark, which isn’t much of an anomaly, but it’s still a number that might warrant further investigation.
For what it’s worth, Rebecca Lobo did some of that further investigation and offered some context to those numbers.
The below % is accurate, but the raw numbers are also important. This season Clark has been flagrantly fouled 5 times (32 games). In 2023 Satou Sabally was flagrantly fouled 4 times (38 gms ). In ‘22 Aerial Powers was flagrantly fouled 5 times (35 gms). (Research: @herhoopstats ) https://t.co/qztxgW0c8T
— Rebecca Lobo (@RebeccaLobo) September 1, 2024
[Nightcap]
