Sue Bird, a 20-year WNBA star, said that the alleged hate toward Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark is just trash talk that’s misinterpreted.
Clark takes the floor today at the WNBA All-Star game that pits the league stars against Team USA, the women’s basketball team for the upcoming Paris Olympics.
“I think the majority of WNBA players with their play, with their talk, it was just competition, not hate for a person,” Bird said.
“Caitlin will go down as, whatever you want to call it, the one who made the change, this pivotal person,” added Bird, who retired in 2022. She was speaking during an appearance on the Good Game with Sarah Spain podcast. “She will, 100 percent. But in other leagues … it was never like when LeBron (James) came, ‘Oh, Michael Jordan didn’t matter.’ And for some reason that happened, and it caused this whole thing.
“When the reality was, no player felt that way toward Caitlin, everybody was very welcoming and inviting, and they mistook competitive talk for hate, with hating on somebody.”
Bird’s view runs counter to others pros who have claimed Clark is being targeted, among them LeBron James and Charles Barkley.