Sheryl Swoopes stands by saying Caitlin Clark wouldn't 'dominate' in WNBA as rookie closes record-breaking season

Caitlin Clark has put together, in most regards, a stellar rookie campaign for the Indiana Fever. And on top of her personal accolades, her new team is also playoff bound.

But one of Clark’s early detractors, Sheryl Swoopes, is standing by her stance that Clark wouldn’t enter the WNBA and dominate. So far, the rookie has put up 19.5 points per game, 8.4 assists, and 5.7 rebounds.

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“Those are hell of a numbers, but to me that’s not dominating,” Swoopes said on an episode of Gilbert Arena’s “Gil’s Arena” podcast.

Clark’s per-game assist figure currently leads the league, though she is also first in turnovers, and her scoring average is eighth, putting he just ahead of Sabrina Ionescu. Clark also recently set the WNBA assists record and rookie scoring record for a single season.

A’ja Wilson currently leads the league with 27 points per game.

And as the quartet on the podcast debated the finer points of Clark’s rookie season and whether or not it was dominant, Swoopes sought to clarify her point.

“What I said was: I didn’t think Caitlin, or Angel [Reese], would come into the league and dominate immediately,” Swoopes said, before standing by that assessment. “Which I don’t think either of them did.”

Swoopes also did concede that the Clark of today has certainly improved from the Clark of opening night. And that, to some extent, was a natural result of more playing time and then a long layoff for the Olympics, Swoopes pointed out.

“I still don’t think she’s dominating,” Swoopes said. “but she’s a different player than she was in the first half of the season.”

Clark also created headlines when she liked Taylor Swift’s post endorsing Kamala Harris for president

After Tuesday night’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Taylor Swift took to social media to endorse Harris in the 2024 election. The post quickly went viral, and multiple big names liked it.

Clark was one of them. Last week, ahead of the Indiana Fever’s game against the Las Vegas Aces, she explained why she liked the post.

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Clark pointed out the parallels between her platform on social media and Swift’s. They’re two of the highest-profile people in the world, and the former Iowa star said she wants to use it to help spread the word about registering to vote.

“I think for myself is, I have this amazing platform,” Clark said. “So I think the biggest thing would be just to encourage people to register to vote. I think for myself, this is the second time I can vote for an election at age 22 – I could vote when I was 18.

“I think [to] do that, that’s the biggest thing I can do with the platform that I have, and that’s the same thing Taylor did. And I think continue to educate yourself with the candidates that we have, the policies that they’re supporting. I think that’s the biggest thing you can do and that’s what I would recommend to every single person that has that opportunity in our country.”