Stephen A. Smith compares Caitlin Clark to Larry Bird following trash talk, WNBA scuffle

Stephen A. Smith compared Caitlin Clark to Larry Bird following the latest string of trash talk and scuffle in the WNBA Tuesday night. Clark’s Fever beat Connecticut 88-71 but the game was marred when Clark absorbed a couple of hits and was shoved to the ground.

Later on, teammate Sophie Cunningham committed an intentional foul which resulted in a scrum with players jawing and getting physical with one another. Tempers flared to say the least.

Smith made the argument, for how good Clark is, she has a target on her back. But, it’s a little self induced because, like Bird, gets in the face of others with her stellar play on the court. He explained Wednesday.

“She comes in the WNBA and you see her, you see a little shove here, and there you see her throw a little elbow here, and there you see her talking smack,” Smith said on First Take. “Caitlin Clark does this, so on top of the fact that she could play because the girl’s a shooter and she’s an assist maven as well, leading the league in assists and stuff like that. She’s special for the league, MVP (votes) last year, rookie of the year, but she’s also somebody … kind of like Larry Bird was. When Larry Bird was shooting the lights out of stuff like that. But Larry Bird also talked junk. 

“Dr. J was one of the nicest, sweetest people on the planet. People said he was making house calls, helped invite America into the NBA and America’s living rooms. And Dr. J swung on Larry Bird. Why? Because Larry Bird said ‘I’m about to hit this jumper right here on you.’ Bam. ‘I’m about to hit this three right here.’ Bam. ‘I’m about to spin. I’m about to pull away on you right here.’ Bam, and we’re just talking smack. Caitlin Clark is that person as well. So the (vitriol) that she gets, some of it is self induced.”

If Clark gets to the level of Bird in terms of play, Indiana can count multiple championships as a team, multiple MVPs for Clark and a Hall of Fame career. If she has to talk a little smack along the way, especially with what she’s endured from others players so far in her career, so be it.

Following the game, Fever head coach Stephanie White was not too happy. She called out WNBA officials during his postgame press conference, not just the ones in the Fever-Sun game. White believes this has been an issue all season regarding Clark.

“There wasn’t an explanation for the tech that she got,” White said. ” It think it was pretty obvious that stuff was brewing. When the officials don’t get control of the ball game, when they don’t allow that stuff to happen — it’s been happening all season long. All season long. It’s not just this game, it’s all season long. This is what happens, right? This is what happens. You’ve got competitive women who are the best in the world at what they do. When you allow them to play physical and you allow these things to happen, they’re going to compete and they’re going to have their teammates’ backs. It’s exactly what you expect out of fierce competition.

“I started talking to the officials in the first quarter and we knew this was going to happen. You can tell it was going to happen. So, they’ve got to get control of it, they’ve got to be better. They’ve got to be better.”