Sheryl Swoopes cleared the air regarding her notable absence from the broadcast booth during a game between the Indiana Fever and Dallas wings earlier this month

Sheryl Swoopes clapped back at rumors suggesting she purposefully didn’t cover a game between the Indiana Fever and Dallas Wings due to an ongoing feud with Caitlin Clark.

Earlier this month, Swoopes was noticeably not in the broadcast booth during the Fever’s 100-93 win over the Wings. Her absence sent social media into a tailspin, with many WNBA fans speculating that the Dallas analyst wasn’t in attendance because of past negative remarks she made about Clark.

Swoopes has rarely shied away from sharing her opinion of Clark, as the three-time WNBA MVP has cemented herself as one of the 22-year-old’s most vocal critics. Just several days prior to the Fever-Wings game on September 1, she drew the ire of Indiana fans after defending Chicago Sky guard Diamond DeShields, who received a flagrant 1 foul for forcefully dropping Clark to the floor.

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Despite the apparent animosity between the pair, Swoopes asserted that she had no issue with Clark. Addressing her missing appearance at the Fever game, she told Angel Reese on the ‘Unapologetically Angel’ podcast: “That’s not how that happened.

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“I’m laughing, Angel, because honestly this is so funny to me, and it’s crazy. They were like, ‘Oh, Sheryl was replaced, they fired her, they kicked her off the game because it’s Caitlin Clark and she can’t do that game.’

“I was contracted to do seven Dallas Wings games, I was never supposed to do that game anyway. But because of everything else, they just figured because I didn’t do that game that they fired me, but really my contract was up.”

Reese could hardly believe that the incident was so blown out of proportion, chiming in, “It’s stupid,” before later adding: “So they made that a thing, that was never a thing.”

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Later on in the show, Swoopes even gave Clark her due praise when she and Reese began naming who they believed to be the best passers in the WNBA. “I got two-and-a-half,” the Sky Rookie began. “Caitlin, Chelsea [Gray], Natasha [Cloud].”

Swoopes expressed a similar sentiment, chiming in: “I had for sure on my list Caitlin and Chelsea. And Tash because I love Tash.”