Sheryl Swoopes Oddly Sought Out Angel Reese Before Apologizing To Caitlin Clark For Her Many Lies
Four-time WNBA champion Sheryl Swoopes caused quite a stir earlier this month when she attempted to downplay Caitlin Clark's achievements, spewing several lies about the Iowa star in the process. After intense backlash, Swoopes has since apologized to Clark about one of the fibs she told, but only did so after speaking with LSU's Angel Reese.
Swoopes' criticisms of Clark came ahead of her inevitably surpassing Kelsey Plum's all-time scoring record of 3,527 points, which the Iowa star achieved on February 15 against Michigan. Swoopes, while wearing a shirt that read ‘Female, Fearless, and Black,’ argued that we should put an asterisk next to Clark’s record-breaking career because she played five seasons in college, is not a true senior, shoots 40 times per game, and is a 25-year-old playing against teenagers.
Not one of those things is true. Clark is a true senior, is currently in the middle of her fourth season, averages around 20 shot attempts per game, and just turned 22-years-old in January.
READ: Bitter Sheryl Swoopes Can't Handle Accountability For Lies About Caitlin Clark
Thousands of people immediately, and understandably, flooded Swoopes' mentions on social media to point out that she went 0-for-4 with her criticisms. Soon after her lies about Clark went viral, Swoopes made her X account private. OutKick would have attempted to reach out to her to comment on this story, but she blocked us after we shared facts she clearly does not agree with.
It did not take long for Swoopes to realize that she had made a number of mistakes, and this past weekend admitted as much while sharing that she had reached out to Clark since the fallout.
Swoopes went down a rather unique path before getting in contact with her, however.
During the Baylor - Texas Tech women's basketball broadcast on Sunday, Swoopes revealed that she called Angel Reese shortly after her comments went viral before ultimately deciding to send Clark a message.
"Honestly, a couple of weeks ago I reached out to Angel [Reese] and had a really good conversation with Angel over the phone and sent a message to Caitlin," Swoopes said during the broadcast. "And she responded. She and I went back and forth. I won’t share what she said, I’ll leave that to her if she wants to share."
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Sherly Swoopes Apologizes To Caitlin Clark, Sort Of
Reese and Clark had a bit of a run-in during last year's national championship game, and the LSU star is portrayed as Clark's lone rival in the sport. Swoopes could very easily have been reaching out to Reese to simply get Clark's contact information, but that seems a bit too on the nose given the history between the two.
A 52-year-old Swoopes feeling the need to talk with 21-year-old Reese before apologizing for a handful of lies she told about Clark is incredibly odd behavior. Even if you disregard the assumption that Swoopes was seeking out some sort of advice from Reese on how to handle the Clark debacle, Swoopes making Reese the first point of contact makes absolutely zero sense.
As for the apology, Swoopes explained that she made a mistake assuming Clark was in her fifth season at Iowa. She didn't walk back the comments about her shooting it 40 times per game or being 25-years-old.
"But I will say what I said to her was I made a mistake in saying it was your fifth year when it is your fourth," Swoopes said. "Have nothing but respect for what she has done for the game. And, you know, if she wants to share what her response was and how that conversation went I’ll leave that to her. But it was a really good conversation."