Sue Bird knows that there’s a fine line, but in most cases, the former WNBA star believes that the alleged hate toward Fever rookie Caitlin Clark actually resembles competitive fuel that’s misinterpreted.
“Caitlin will go down as, whatever you want to call it, the one who made the change, this pivotal person,” Bird, the former Storm star who retired in 2022 after a 20-year career in the league, said 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.”
Others around the WNBA have criticized the notion of alleged hate toward Clark, too — including Liberty star Jonquel Jones and Aces head coach Becky Hammon.
But it’s a storyline that has followed the former Iowa star since she became the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft and the spotlight — and ratings — that followed her collegiate career shifted to Indiana.
“NBA on TNT” analyst Charles Barkley called out “petty” WNBA players their alleged hatred toward Clark, while Sky rookie Angel Reese wrote in a post on X following an early-season win that the expanding visibility of the league is “not just cause of one player.”
Since Chicago teammate Chennedy Carter knocked Clark to the ground and Reese appeared to celebrate in the background, though, everything has seemingly settled into place.
There hasn’t been an obvious foul, a cryptic post on X — anything that would suggest Barkley’s claim, with the hatred that Bird was referring to, existed.
Reese and Clark will even be teammates during Saturday’s night All-Star Game between Team USA and Team WNBA, with the Fever — behind Clark’s 17.1 points, 8.2 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game — surging back into playoff contention with eight wins across their past 13 games and Reese cementing her place as a Rookie of the Year candidate.
“I think the majority of WNBA players with their play, with their talk, it was just competition, not hate for a person,” Bird said.