Shannon Sharpe has defended Caitlin Clark after the Fever rookie was met with a cheap shot by a WNBA legend over the weekend.
At the end of the Fever’s 92-75 win over the Storm on Sunday in Indiana, Clark was hyping up her home fans when she was bumped into by six-time All-Star Skylar Diggins-Smith – with many accusing her of purposely crashing into her opponent.
And Sharpe came to Clark’s defense afterwards on his ‘Night Cap’ podcast with Chad Johnson, as he urged the former Iowa star’s pro peers to ‘stop this foolishness.’
‘Caitlin Clark is getting the crowd going. Y’all see Skylar Diggins speed up to make contact with her,’ he began.
‘Stop this! Y’all mad because that cornfed Iowa girl busting y’all a**… [She’s] cooking. Let her cook!’
And the Indiana Fever rookie star was defended afterwards by NFL legend Shannon Sharpe
Diggins-Smith was also slammed by fans on social media after the move, with fans accusing her of being jealous of Clark.
The former became a national sensation in college at Notre Dame and has had an extremely successful WNBA career.
However, after two seasons missed due to maternity leave (including 2023), she is averaging her lowest points per contest (13.8) since 2016.
Clark also experienced some hostility earlier in the season from Sky opponent Chennedy Carter, who went out of her way to bodycheck her to the ground. Clark’s college rival Angel Reese was also seen cheering on the play from the bench,
Nonetheless, Clark is in fact ‘cooking’ like Sharpe said.
She scored 23 points and nine assists to help the Fever beat the Storm, and has scored at least 20 points in five of her last six games.
She is averaging 23.7 points on 47 per cent shooting from the field, and 11.7 assists over that span.
Diggins-Smith appeared to deliberately bump into Clark at the end of Sunday’s game
Clark has been in top form recently as she’s scored 20+ points in four of her last five games
Clark has also smashed the previous WNBA rookie assist record, with with her 232 surpassing Ticha Penicheiro’s mark of 224 in 1998.
Still, she and the Fever (13-15) still have 12 games remaining to add to that total.
They’ve won four of their last five, with the month-long WNBA break looking to have benefitted the team.
They’ll have another mini-break this week as they won’t face the Lynx until Saturday
