Stephen A. Smith DESTROYS Team USA Veterans As Caitlin Clark Is TARGETED LIVE At FIBA!

Stephen A. Smith DESTROYS Team USA Veterans As Caitlin Clark Is TARGETED LIVE At FIBA!

She’s white. And because of that, when you consider some of the hard times other people gave her, they were resentful of the fact that this white girl came on the scene where there was a bunch of sisters that preceded her, spanning decades that were big time that deserved a lot of >> Steven A.

 Smith went on live television and did something he does not do very often anymore. He picked a side without hedging. Team USA just wrapped up group play at the FIA World Cup in Berlin. The roster is stacked with gold medalists. And somehow the biggest story out of the whole tournament is not a score. It is a hand left hanging in the air and a bench that could not manage a real clap for its own teammate.

She can ball. And oh by the way, she was a great ambassador for the game. And by the way, she came in there and LOOKED OUT FOR EVERYBODY ELSE. FOR 22 YEARS, THEY COULDN’T GET CHARTERED FLIGHTS. THAT SISTER GOT there and it was done in 2 weeks. That’s who >> Smith watched the same clips everyone else watched.

 He just decided not to pretend they meant nothing. And that is really the whole reason this clip is still getting reposted days later. >> Oh, them Clarkies real mad right now. This has been brought to my attention. You got Team USA. Jackie Young probably the best player on the team. She got a million dollars.

 you feel me? And she got a few championships and she playing with the best player in the league. So, she probably going to at least get another chip. She shook everybody hand and straight up curve. >> Let’s start with the handshake because that is the one that traveled the furthest online. After Team USA beat China to open the tournament, players lined up to do the normal end of game routine.

 Slaps, nods, a quick word here and there. Caitlyn Clark had her hand out. Jackie Young walked right past it. No tap, no glance, nothing. Frame by frame, the clip shows Young’s arm never once drifting toward Clark’s direction, which is the detail that killed the she just didn’t see it defense before it even got going.

 Smith put it plainly on air. “Young wouldn’t even know who you are without Caitlyn Clark,” he said, and then doubled down that these are facts, not opinions, dressed up as facts. He said it twice actually, like he wanted it to sink in before he moved on. She looked dead at her like, “Man, I don’t mess with you like that.

 You feel me? We see what’s going on. You trying to take my teammate Chelsea great spot. All your fans rooting for that. I gotta say so here too. And I’mma let it be known. We ain’t rocking with you. I made my name before you even came to the WNBA. You feel me? What up? Jackie Young stood on business.

 She looked day in her face like, “Girl, you better get out my face.” You feel me? We ain’t rocking with you. Chelsea Gay is my girl. We done been through battles and how dare you come in here and disrespect the vets like that. Not only is your fan base pushing for you to start, but we can see that you trying to push forward, too. Jackie Young stood.

>> Somebody in the crowd had their phone out because somebody always does. Now, that 10-second clip ended up getting more replays than the actual highlights from a 33-point win. And look, handshake lines are chaos. 12 players moving in different directions at once. So, there is a version of this where it really was just bad timing.

 But Clark was the captain that night. She came off the bench behind a veteran heavy starting five, then went out and put up a record- setting stat line once she checked in. 14 points and 11 assists with zero turnovers. The best World Cup debut an American has had since 1998. Watching a starter breeze past that captain’s outstretched hand a few minutes later is exactly the kind of moment that stops looking accidental once you already suspect something is off.

 If y’all naturally wanted to see Clark win, y’all wouldn’t HAVE TO ORCHESTRATE A CLAP. JACKIE YOUNG, SEE, y’all thought y’all was being slick, but y’all forget y’all always on camera, Jackie Young, man. So, apparently they was orchestrating a clap after Clark had made a three and they seen that, you know, I guess they was on camera or we got to clap because Clark did something.

 So, her fan base is going to be watching, y’all. So, make sure that we clap our hands for her making this shot. Man, it’s like y’all just wouldn’t have to do that if you naturally wanted to see Clark win Jackie Young. I bet you don’t have to do this for Kalia Copper when she scores or Chelsea Gray or whatever cuz those is your home girls, right? But of course, Clark is the controversy with all of y’all and how y’all feel and might not feel and all that.

 But when you do stuff like this, it doesn’t make y’all >> Now, here is the one Smith really could not let go. Team USA is up 41 on Cheeky in a game they would win 105 to 64 blowout numbers. Nothing left to play for. Clark pulls up from well behind the ark and buries it. The kind of shot that should get every single person on that bench off their seat without thinking twice.

 Instead, the camera catches Kalia Copper sitting there with almost nothing on her face. And right next to her, Jackie Young leans over and tells her flat out, “You better clap.” Copper claps. Late, quiet, barely there, eyes drifting somewhere else the whole time. Compare that to how a bench usually reacts to a logo 3 from a teammate. guys jumping up, arms out, real noise, and it is not close to the same energy.

 It took a direct order to get the bare minimum out of her. The internet noticed within minutes. One fan, Jaime Lardis, put it about as clean as anybody did. I don’t know which is worse, Jackie Young telling Kalia Copper, “You better clap because she’s annoyed by the Caitlyn Clark attention,” or Kala genuinely not wanting to clap until she was told to.

Either way, it just rubs me the wrong way. That quote got passed around for days because it names the exact discomfort everybody felt watching the clip without needing to add anything extra to it. for what the competition across the board looks like. >> That’s a real thing. >> First Clark today after four start.

>> Another post that spread hard came from an account called Hero of the Day. And this one did not bother being careful about it. Everyone with a set of eyes can see the rampant jealousy for Caitlyn Clark permeating women’s basketball. Enough is enough. Why won’t someone tell them the insecure and childish behavior must stop? Strong words, sure, but that is the exact language Smith echoed almost word for word once he got in front of a camera himself a couple days later.

 Let’s set the scene properly for a second because the numbers around this whole stretch matter just as much as the reactions do. Team USA opened the tournament by demolishing China, then nearly blew a double-digit lead against Italy in the lowest scoring World Cup win the program has posted since 1971, then blew out by 41.

 Three games, three completely different stories, and Clark’s role kept shrinking every single time the score got tight. Against Italy, she played 18 minutes and finished with one point. Against Czecha, she hit one three all night, and it happened to be the shot that triggered the whole clap incident. That is not the statline anybody expects from the most talked about guard in the sport.

 And a lot of that traces straight back to how often the ball actually finds her hands when it matters. >> So, Team USA won today, but it was another game where they just wouldn’t pass to Caitlyn. So, what they do is put Brianna Stewart. She’s dribbling up the court. They put her in with Caitlyn Clark and then don’t let Caitlyn Clark run the point guard.

 Honestly, anytime Paige Beckers and Brianna Stewart were on the court, Caitlyn Clark wasn’t going to get the ball. This is three straight games. It goes to show you [music] the players and the coach could change the aspect of every game. Like I guess 11 players were just like, “Hey, Caitlyn Clark’s I mean she got the player of the game, so let’s make sure that the assists aren’t going to go through her.

Make sure she doesn’t catch rhythm.” The craziest thing I’m showing you just calling for the ball just for an entire half. But watch what happens. Watch how she shares the ball once she gets her hands on it. She had seven assists, could have had about 15. This is the part that gets skipped if you only watch the handshake and clap clips and move on.

 Rewatch the actual possessions from these last three games and you will see Clark standing wide open on the wing calling for it, hands ready, and the ball just does not come. Not once, repeatedly. She is the team’s fourth leading scorer at this tournament and near the top of the roster in assists.

 And somehow that does not translate into the ball finding her when she is standing there uncontested. One possession like that is an accident. A stretch of possessions across three straight games is a pattern. And once you notice it, you cannot really unsee it. Smith spent a solid chunk of his segment just replaying these clips one after another, letting the tape argue his point for him instead of talking over it.

 Like, I did not realize how bad it was. How bad Jackie Young’s refusal to ever pass the ball. Caitlyn Tark is like, it is concerning. It is concerning. Like she would rather turn it over. She would rather turn the ball over then pass the ball. Here is where the story picks up a layer most people watching from the outside never even considered.

Jackie Young is reportedly dating DJ Carrington. And Carrington has her own welldocumented history of friction with Clark going back through the regular WNBA season. So, when Young skips a handshake and has to prompt a teammate to clap, the question people started asking online is whether that is really just Young being young or whether it is loyalty to her partner spilling over onto a Team USA floor where none of that is supposed to matter.

 Nobody can prove intent from a bench camera angle. But once you know the connection exists, the coldness reads differently and it stops feeling like a coincidence stacked on another coincidence. >> Caitlyn Clark had 37 points, 10 assists, eight threes, and we got this lovely reaction. But I want to point out something that happened in the game.

Some of the Chicago Sky including DJ Jane Carrington to me were looking for a fight this game and Caitlyn instead of talking about it in the media just did it with her basketball skills and this is one of the plays that happened. >> Indiana can regain the lead. Clark another step back three. Yes. >> And a little bit of passion afterwards.

>> You love it. This is >> so DJ purposely runs into Clark and then Clark just waves her off. Just waves her off. You can tell that Clark was just over that storyline and with that rivalry. >> This is not a new pattern for Carrington either. And that matters here. A few weeks before the World Cup even started, Carrington got called for a foul guarding Clark argued the call and then watched Clark hit a step back three right over her about 30 seconds later.

Cameras caught Carrington intentionally bumping Clark as they ran back up the floor. It was the first real physical confrontation between the two of them and it went everywhere online almost instantly. So when people connect that history to Jackie Young’s behavior in Berlin, they are not inventing a grudge out of nowhere.

 They are pointing at a receipt that already existed before this tournament ever tipped off. In the aftermath of that August incident, Carrington also caught heat online for a tweet a lot of fans read as needlessly combative given the circumstances, which only added fuel to the idea that this rivalry runs deeper than one bad possession.

 Now flip the camera to a different part of that same bench because fairness matters here too. Watch Clark, Paige Beckers, Angel Reese, and Aaliyah Boston celebrate a maid shot from any one of them. Extra passes, real hugs, actual excitement instead of a delayed clap somebody had to be told to give.

 That is what team basketball looks like when nobody needs a reminder. And it is exactly why the iciness aimed at Clark specifically stands out as hard as it does. It is not that this whole roster is cold. It is that a specific handful of veterans keeps showing up cold. And it keeps happening to the same player game after game, tournament after tournament.

>> Attendance for Indiana Fever games. Are you kidding me? MWNBA draft games on ABC, ESPN television ratings. She’s directly responsible. And people were resenting her for it like she was the cause of the problems that they had for the lack of recognition. No, she just happened to be born white. That’s it. Caitlyn Clark hasn’t spoken against anybody.

 She hasn’t assisted in denying anybody else the privileges they deserve. If anything, she’s tried to provide assistance. A rising tide lifts all boats. She’s trying to be the rising tide that lifts the boats. And there was sisters resentful of her. Be resentful of the system. Be resentful of the folks, primarily the white folks, WHO BASICALLY DISENFRANCHISED y’all all of these years before she CAME ALONG, WHO DENIED YOU THE ACCLAIM AND the allure and the profits YOU RICHLY DESERVED.

BUT YOU DON’T TAKE THAT OUT ON CAITLYN CLARK. >> THIS IS where Smith stopped talking about handshakes and started talking about money. And honestly, this is the part of his rant people are still quoting. Rising tide lifts all boats. He said as much as her presence maximize the WNBA’s attention.

 You players could have done more to assist it. Higher television ratings, higher attendance figures, ladies and gentlemen. That doesn’t come courtesy of a league. It comes courtesy of the players that play in the league. And in her case, she was the most popular, which means she could have helped your bottom line, which means you should have seen that from day one and maximized it instead of freezing her out.

 In other words, the veterans should have leaned into the attention and let it lift them, too. He kept coming back to that phrase, “Rising tide lifts all boats almost like a refrain.” And it landed because arenas have really been selling out on nights. Clark plays and ratings really have jumped whenever she is on the floor. >> Caitlin Clark did not build the WNBA.

The WNBA was built on the backs of many people who came before Caitlyn Clark. Most of them being sisters, meaning black ladies, the Cynthia Coopers, the Cheryl Swoops of the world, the Lisa Leslie’s of the world, the Maya Moors of the world. List goes on and on. Don’t get me wrong, I ain’t forget Diana Terrasi, you know, one of the goats.

 I ain’t forget about her. I ain’t forget about Sue Bird. I ain’t forget about Rihanna Stewart. I certainly ain’t going to get forget about Serena UNESCO. I’m not going to forget about any of these other players. But you got a lot of sisters that have baldled in the WNBA for years that made the WNBA what it was.

 And don’t get me started with Asia Wilson who is clearly the goat. I mean, this woman is something special. Make no mistake about her. At least the modern day goat, the one playing today, she is all that. Asia Wilson, three-time champion. We get it. But the money, the bag, the ratings, the collective bargaining agreement that was just signed, all of that came after Caitlyn Clark.

 Smith did not treat this as a one tournament story either, and that is what gave his comments some weight instead of just sounding like another hot take. He tied it straight back to three years of the exact same dynamic going back to Clark’s rookie season in 2024 when he first said on air that some players in that league were jealous of her back before she had even proven herself at that level yet.

 The constant undercutting, the slow claps, the missed connections that seem to follow her specifically and nobody else on any roster she has ever been part of. That is the through line he was pointing at. three years, different teammates, different jerseys, same basic story playing out again in Berlin with a clearer piece of video attached this time.

>> We know what she brings to the table, but people wanted to hate because why? You had a bunch of players in this league that watched this this this young white girl come along and take the league by storm and they resented it because they saw the marketing prowess that she had. They ignored the fact that you got chartered flights because of this girl.

 They ignored the fact that ratings were going through the roof because of this girl. Instead, they resented it because they said, “Yo, we were doing stuff long before Caitlyn Clark got here.” And y’all wasn’t paying attention then. But now the young white girl comes along and y’all want to sit up there and shower all of this praise and all of this attention that was earned before she ever came along.

 The resentment is understandable, but it’s not about Caitlyn Clark. It’s about what she represents. My point is grow up. Who cares if you’re magic and bird? That didn’t stop Jordan from coming along and doing. >> To be fair, plenty of people pushed back on Smith the same day he said all this. Some analysts called it competitive intensity.

 Said veterans do not owe anybody extra enthusiasm. Said Clark needs to earn it like everybody else who ever wore that jersey. A couple of the veterans themselves brushed the whole thing off as overblown when reporters asked, calling it media noise and nothing more. That is a fair position to hold on its own, but it gets harder to hold every single time a new clip surfaces showing the exact same cold behavior from the exact same handful of players in a different game a few days later.

 Nobody is asking 12 women from different franchises and different rivalries to suddenly become best friends because they are wearing the same four letters across their chest for 2 weeks. That was never realistic and it never will be. What is not normal is needing a teammate to physically tell you to clap for a shot that just widened a 40point lead. Clapping costs nothing.

Passing the ball to an open teammate costs nothing. A handshake costs about 1 second of your time. That the internet keeps having to catch these moments on camera before anybody bothers to do them says a lot more than any postgame quote ever will. And Smith knew exactly what he was doing when he put that tape back in front of everybody instead of letting it quietly disappear.

 Caitlyn Clark should be running the point for Team USA as much as possible. Man, there’s no reason why the assist leader, the player that helps generate the most points not running the offense as much as possible, man. Like, why you got Jackie Young, Paige, and Chelsea Gray running the offense, bro? You have Kaitlyn Clark on your team.

 She should be running the point like 95% of the time. You’ll blow teams out the water and historical records, man. It’s crazy when these coaches and [ __ ] on Team USA is not utilizing Caitlyn Clark at the point as much as possible. Let her run the [ __ ] offense as the best maestro in the game and set everybody up and space the [ __ ] floor the way Clark does, man.

 Like, it’s hilarious how they be having these other players like try to run the point for extended times and all this [ __ ] when you literally have >> So, where does this actually leave Team USA heading into the metal rounds? Nobody is questioning whether this roster can win. Nobody is questioning whether Clark can play. Not after a debut that broke a record standing since 1998.

 And not after averaging over 20 points a game back in Indiana while carrying the highest assist numbers in the league. The question hanging over Berlin is smaller than that and somehow bigger at the same time. Can a locker room built on this many old rivalries and this much unspoken tension about who the cameras follow actually pretend to be one team for two more weeks? Clark has said all the right things publicly, staying quiet about all of it.

 But the tape keeps talking anyway, and every time it does, it makes Smith’s rant look less like an overreaction and more like somebody finally saying out loud what the footage had already been showing for three years Running.