WNBA upgrades foul on Caitlin Clark to Flagrant 1, does the league need to protect her? | SPEAK

Emmanuel Acho, Joy Taylor, LeSean McCoy and James Jones react to the Caitlin Clark-Chennedy Carter incident, then debate whether the WNBA needs to protect the Indiana Fever star more.

#Speak #WNBA #CaitlinClark

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The revamped SPEAK takes over the airwaves with Emmanuel Acho, LeSean McCoy and Joy Taylor covering the day’s hottest topics in sports and offering their unfiltered takes.

WNBA upgrades foul on Caitlin Clark to Flagrant 1, does the league need to protect her? | SPEAK

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didn’t want to talk but Kennedy Carter goes on Twitter later on and says and that’s on that but because besides three-point shooting what does she Caitlyn Clark bring to the table man besides three-point shooting what does she bring to the table man what we are witnessing is a generational talent in the WNBA we’re really witnessing a generational talent in all of sports it’s the most important conversation that you will hear today so allow yourself if we may to educate you and hopefully entertain you as we participate in this dialogue collectively Joy know when more important thoughts than the thoughts you are about to share because the discourse about professional athletes but more importantly about professional athletes that are women has started to become convoluted and ignorant if I may as a man suggest that so what are your thoughts on the Caitlyn Clark incident Saturday I think it wasn’t a basketball play it was an emotional reaction by Kennedy and that’s why it was a foul and that’s why it was upgraded and that’s why she was asked about it and that’s why the crowd reacted the way that they did and that was a separate incident from everything else that’s happening around Caitlyn Clark I think because we can look at that and then her response to it afterwards her reaction in the post game press conference her comments that we just showed on social media we can isolate this as this is her sending a message to Caitlyn Clark this is this is her violently sending a message on the court and a in a non-basketball fashion this is her using her words on social media to send a message about how she feels about Caitlyn Clark she’s said it herself those are her words what does she bring to the table I think the conversation overall about Caitlyn Clark and the reaction that we’re seeing from a lot of people has become a bit toxic because I think this incident is getting mushed in with how people have been playing defense on Caitlyn Clark how physical they’ve been on Caitlyn Clark some of the comments from some of the greats in the WWA before Caitlyn Clark got in it’s all kind of getting put into this this pot of Caitlyn Clark hates and I think it’s more nuanced than that I think there are a lot of things that’s happening with Caitlyn Clark and the start of her career that are very normal to a lot of sports you often see players who are in the league or players who have played before or great have opinions about New Rising Stars in the league that is not uncommon that’s not exclusive to women’s sports it’s not exclusive to Men’s Basketball you can we can pull so many examples of that you often see rookies get played very tough get get a little message shown to them especially if they’re coming into the league with a lot of hype that also is not new I think what is very specifically unique about this situation is we are seeing a Transcendent crossover Superstar come into the league and have a huge amount of Buzz of polarization of excitement it is translating in numbers it is translating in ticket sales it is translating in conversation and overall I think that’s a good thing I don’t think that what Kennedy did is a reflection of how the entirety of the league feels I don’t think it’s a reflection of how all female athletes feel and I don’t think it’s a reflection of how the media feels I’m excited about watching Caitlyn Clark I went to watch Caitlyn Clark play basketball it wasn’t my first WNBA game I was excited to see how she performs and I watched very very very physical play from the moment of the tip to the end of the game on Caitlyn Clark so I won’t deny that there is a bit of an energy towards Caitlyn Clark from the players but this is basketball this is competition they are athletes and I don’t think that every part of the conversation around Caitlyn Clark should be in the same pot yeah well said well said uh shady mcquire I see you highlighting obviously I talked to you before the show I know you have and have always had passionate thoughts around Caitlyn Clark so I am incredibly eager to hear the brilliant words you got to say talk to the audience and myself yeah so I mean there’s some hate going on right and we all can see it I I think what Joey just talked about is important because not everything is hate right I feel like sometimes if somebody does something to a player right that’s being getting hated on you just throw that right in there with it and that’s not the case they are pushing her a certain way like I don’t mind guarding a rookie you know from from inbound to inbound because she is that good she deserves that type of attention but my thing is like when you look at this play from Kennedy though right like there’s no basketball part of that and the game doesn’t need any sport if it’s if it’s basketball women or men there’s no you call on her name and then you what is that right and and let me help you people out for a second um Kenny Kennedy Carter is her name I know a lot of you guys don’t know who that is um she actually got drafted fourth overall right 2020 she’s been on with three teams so far so up player like that that’s not known that’s trying to get her name out there they do stuff like that we in NBA they have that they have Dylan Brooks they got guys like that so I understand it but my problem is when you talk about hate that’s hate there’s no basketball part in the game and then if you look at the teammates on the sideline cheering clapping it up it’s like if I’m playing football somebody does something dirty to the quarterback and then you look on the side where the fans or where where the team’s at and they’re clapping you could you can see that there’s conversation of hate going on right you look at people in interviews or or or Twitter and keep bringing this girl’s name up over and over again she’s not saying nothing back to him the my problem is y’all hate on the wrong person you shouldn’t hate on a person that’s actually making a game big for y’all all these freaking years of watching women’s basketball there’s probably been dirty plays but you’re not talking about on speak you not talking about on Fox talking on these other networks because this girl Kaylin is bringing that attention to the biggest problem is is the commissioner I’m going to go to commissioner well Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan and before he kind of ran the NBA he was that superstar that was coming there right it was the Jordan rule that the Pistons was hey Jordan come in the lane you knock him down whatever you got to do to him that even though it’s basketball which that wasn’t but it was part of trying to to execute a plan against the greatest player that we we’ve seen in the game at that time was the biggest exciting player like Caitlyn is but if you look at the way Michael Jordan’s careers went right and he is a great player and he was tough David Stern the commissioner he change that hold up y’all are not about to mess up the biggest thing for the NBA who was Michael Jordan let’s put it in context right now today the commissioner you stepping there and say y’all are not about to mess up the biggest thing that’s bringing all the awareness to the game from Caitlyn if you look at Michael Jord he was the first person to really get them personalized um customized um sneakers deals right because before everybody signs a Converse and all them no dord had his own shoe this is how I want to design it and then ever since then you see all these big contracts from LeBron all these other guys Kaylin’s the same way now she got her shoe she got Nike $28 million um um contract with Nike and all these different endorsements she’s going to start bringing all these different women to the light now so I just feel like they hate on the wrong person don’t hate on the Messiah don’t do it uh I’ll be quick because you may call it hate what what I will call it is Envy what we are seeing with Kaitlyn Clark is envy and let me Define it for so many of y’all because they’re human I’m not surprised that we’re seeing Envy but Envy a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions qualities or luck with Caitlyn Clark it’s not at all luck but what we’re seeing and not generalizing not by every WNBA player but by some I believe Kennedy Carter in that specific incident is Envy because postgame when you go to the presser and you don’t want to answer questions about Caitlyn Clark why you answer questions about other individuals but you don’t want to answer questions about Caitlyn Clark I believe what we are seeing is Envy now it’s a human response when you were a kid if somebody had new Jordans that you did not have you wanted them Envy is a natural human response I would be shocked if we weren’t seeing MV but I will not Gaslight the viewers of the fans and you watching by trying to act like individuals are not envious of Caitlyn Clark not everybody the WNBA players are not a monolith but we definitely saw it in the incident over the weekend now what I would suggest instead is don’t be envious of Caitlyn Clark let her take the brunt of the blows as she’s the pacemaker she’s going first going first as it pertains to completely exploding the sport she got to do more interviews than y’all sucks for her she had to play 11 games in 20 days meanwhile the aces back toback Champs only had to play six games in last 20 days sucks for her she has to do postgame press conferences sucks for her she got to do Post practice press conferences sucks for her what Caitlyn Clark is doing she is taking the brunt of the burden so that everybody else can succeed at a higher level a rising tide floats all boats so what I’m simply suggesting for the WNBA players is don’t be envious to Caitlyn Clark let her do all the dirty work so that you too can succeed more tickets being sold if more tickets mean more ad Revenue more ad Revenue means a higher salary cap a higher salary clap means more money for you so rather than being envious of Caitlyn Clark which I believe we are seeing by some players not all some players let her be the pacemaker and just ride that wave to your own personal Glory that’s where I’m at with it James Jones oh man well number one we all agree that the play was dirty of course right whether it’s in the NBA whether it’s in the NFL whatever it is the play was dirty now it’s a tough situation because the WNBA game has always been physical has always been violent everybody is getting fouled hard not just Caitlyn Clark but everybody is getting fouled it’s a very very physical game so I really don’t know what you can do as a commissioner Without Really changing the game for Caitlyn Clark I don’t know what you can do but with this whole situation and watching what unfolded um in this situation with Kennedy couple things stood out to me number one I did not like Angel Rees standing up and happen on the sideline cuz it kind of lets me know that this is something that has been talked about that is on our minds like we are going to send this girl a message I do not like that if you send her a message in between them lines in between the whistles you’re doing it the right way then that’s how you send a message I didn’t like that because it looked like and then to embrace like that it looked like we out to get her right and I don’t know if that was the case I don’t know if Angel Reese meant any of that I’m not sitting here saying she did but that’s what it looked like like right and for me you cannot do that you can you cannot have this in the game Caitlyn Clark is a star but you cannot change the game for Caitlyn Clark when you talk about rules wise she has to figure it out on her own the main thing that sticks out for me where is your teammates where is your family you know it could be this incident you done seen Caitlyn Clark get fouled hard you know that this is happening where are her teammates Ates none of her teammates have ran to pick her up have ran to bump somebody out of the way have ran to her defense none of them have came out to do that I played in the football NFL for a long time we knew it with certain teams that we played against that they are more physical than certain teams we knew that hey when we take this field hey bro I got you no matter what if Jordy Nelson got tackled I’m sprinting to the P I’m bumping people out of the way I’m helping Jordy up because I don’t even want none of that to happen I got my brothers back where are her teammates this may happen again hard fouls are going to happen again when are the teammates going to step up for Caitlin Clark during the game in the media nobody is saying nothing to come out as a teammate of kayen Clark to defend her that’s my problem right wrong it does not matter if you are a team you stick up for one of your sisters that’s out there on the basketball court Point Blank period right here nobody even came to help her up to me that’s embarrassing as a fever organization and as a fever team if Caitlyn Clark is one of your teammates I will never let that right if ESPN says something about y’all it’s going down you know what I’m saying and if we in the middle of the street wherever it is Shady what’s up you it’s going like that that’s what it is nobody coming out saying nothing that’s that’s terrible I mean she she helped her up but she she should have been over there faster I agree I’ve been in bench clearing fights many times come on man and for for far less than that I’m I’m with you on that there’s there’s not the energy uh on the court that there needs to be I mean even being in the you know in the building and watching it the reaction from teammates like you’re right there needs to be there needs to be more of that because we can sit up here and say that you know people need to be protected or they’re they’re fouling her away from the play but if that energy is not even in your building then like I can’t I can’t protect Kaitlin Clark on the court like you you got players around you that are that are bigger than Kennedy that can get up in her face so there is an energy of that as well I I I think it’s a very complicated nuanced conversation there is no one line to the end of this and in a lot of ways I look at it as a very positive thing I know it’s hard to be the villain I know it’s hard to be the the person that all the conversation is about and you know you’re that one when you caus all this conversation so I I I feel for Caitlin Clark as well because she she worked for this right but she didn’t ask for all of this and this is what comes with being someone who is in the in the light the way that she is I I was trying to think to really hard to think of a comp for the situation and I didn’t want to be hyperbolic Michael for sure but what what it also kind of reminds me and it is not a perfect com so forgive me but when LeBron came to Miami when he made the announcement and the decision I’m taking my talents to South Beach the amount of hate that that particular team got it may it may seem far away in your mind now but I was there so I remember it was such an extreme and almost strange situation to me like how being there in Miami and covering and and and reading the Articles and seeing the reaction and seeing the the the true hate that so many people even people not in Cleveland like Cleveland okay maybe I can give Cleveland a pass but everyone hated on this situation so strongly and it wasn’t in the exact same vein as it is with Caitlyn but it was odd to me like why is everyone so mad what is everyone so mad about and the attention and the polarization and the conversations it was just a constant Avalanche surrounding that team so there are there are some similarities to it in this situation but overall I think the fact that we’re having conversations about the WNBA and giving it this much attention is AI thing to me so I’m sure it’s very hard for her but that that comes with being a superstar they W get that attention anyway this this we we don’t need these type of uh um incidents to get inen this is not this is not necessary I age and my thing is like when I see that the the Kennedy girl she she you know has the incident she does that thing to Caitlyn right and then I see Angel Reese jumps up all excited and then when I really look at all her tweets she she constantly tweets about um Caitlyn it’s like yo are you jealous cuz you always keep talking about how um you know it’s just more than just one team that needs more exposure it’s more than just one girl getting Char her plan he like yo I feel like you jealous of this girl you keep bringing her name up and she never says nothing about you as odd to me right we say was this odd it’s odd if you always got my name in your mouth and I never say nothing about you and I’m helping you out it’s this that’s a part I don’t like because even LeBron James thing I get that right hates hate you know I mean but it’s all he did something I guess not in my eyes but he did some to people he he went to the other team and all that cool but this girl ain’t do nothing but all she’s doing is bringing more light to women’s basketball you know today I had a chance to um interview um Demar d rozan right and uh great phenomenal players some comp from La whatever and he said yo man I want to see the the women’s um you know play basketball at uh crypto Arena right he said it was so loud he said I couldn’t believe it and I’m thinking like well who who bought out right and you know not to get into details but he knew one name Caitlyn yeah right I talk to my little my Grandma had 833r birthday right this weekend we all went there all my my cousins little kids everybody there and I’m just now I know I’m on TV we ask me questions like I know everything but but you know we just talk I’m sure y’all get that of course and everybody here right from the 80 years old people to like 20s the 18s to 16 the 14s to 12 they know who Caitlyn Clark is so I’m thinking like dang NBA players going to watch her play they don’t know much about all the other girls playing NFL players don’t know nothing about the game for real but they know who this one player is little kids and and older ladies my thing is y’all doing all this hate into this girl and all she’s doing is about to make more money for y’all all she’s doing is about to have more WNBA teams last thing before you go in the next three four years you going to see so many new teams come in because people want to invest why they want to invest because they see the growth of WNBA who’s that from commissioner I’m telling you now get on this you have Michael Jordan here she’s a lot lighter more here please take care of this if not you gonna lose the game I I think it’s fascinating because everybody I love this conversation I hope y’all are loving it as much as I am what’s interesting is people are saying well what are the WNBA players supposed to do right they’re her competitors they’re not shareholders but I started thinking to myself Sports is interesting because the WNBA players are both competitors and shareholders you need to beat Caitlyn Clark when you’re on the court with Caitlyn Clark if you’re the opponent you want to make sure you beat her within the confinements of the rules but in the same breath a shareholder as a company Elevate so does your salary if you own shares of said company as that company’s value increases so does your worth within that company the WNBA will increase because of ticket sales primarily and because of TV right we are on TV we know that if the TV sales continue to increase and ticket sales continue to increase the salary cap will increase and if the salary cap increases then the salary for every single of the 144 WNBA players that will increase so you are are competitors but like Joy has alluded to it’s Nuance because you’re not just competitors you are competitors and simultaneously you are shareholders I tell people all the time in conversation AO why the hell you let Shady beat you in that argument why you let Joy be why you let James beat you in that argument and I tell people I’m like look my objective isn’t to win my objective is to make good TV cuz if we make good TV then everybody wins now of course in the sake of an arch yeah sometimes say can you do both you can but not always like obvious sometimes there arguments I’m wrong but most often than not I’m like how can I make this segment better but the the WNBA players don’t care about nothing about that but they care about money don’t they yeah but can’t this is this is all I’m saying as a WNBA player that’s Michael Jordan right yep Michael Jordan ain’t going to score a bucket on me when they step on the basketball court that is their mindset because they know all the eyes is on Caitlyn Clark I’m about to lock Caitlin Clark down I don’t care about how much money I’m making 250 300 it don’t matter how much money I’m making I don’t care how much this league is going to grow I am about to show the world that this girl is not like that and I think that is what that is what the WNBA women are trying to do and they have been doing basketball we talking about doing the the dirty stuff we we we talking about the dirty stuff we talking about all the extra tweets we talking about all that no I’m out the dirty stuff and the extra tweets that that’s over there I’m going off of what AO just said about marketing and all that once you step in between lines not say I said dominate her on the court but what I’m saying is it’s interesting that we’re like I’m not saying letter score I’ve never said let you’re talking about like brand like to grow the yes what I’m saying is Caitlyn Clark is the pacemaker she’s the trend Setter I’m not trying to hurt Caitlyn Carter I’m trying to beat her I’m trying to lock her down and that’s why I respected Kennedy Carter’s game during the game if y’all saw the play beforehand she ran around the screen she lost Caitlyn Clark they were going oneon-one she dropped a bucket a nice 16-footer she dropped a bucket cool but at the point in which you yeah your little b word and then doing too much doing too much and that is that’s an outside separate incident to me like how hard she has been getting played this entire season which has also been the conversation from day one like we came in and talked about it we love that we love that yeah but like first game we came in the next day and talked about it what what do we say in her face that’s not what we said but in her face the whole game start to in her face this the Sparks fever game the one that dear was talking about I was there too what did I say to you guys as soon as I left that game the whole game like this the whole game hard and and and they did not lose any energy because because they’ve been doing it at this level for longer she’s a rookie the the conversation is getting mixed up with that what happened with Kennedy is separate from the aggressive play that she’s getting she’s going to get that energy and she should they are competitors they are professionals they are great at what they do they’re grown women they’ve been in the W of course they’re going to give her that energy it would be a disservice to the sport if they didn’t it would be a disservice to her if they didn’t so you’re coming to watch a great product you’re going to get a great product it’s going to be tough it’s going to be physical just like the NBA is just like every professional sport is played at the highest level of intensity and aggression because we are competing to change this point there’s nothing that they can do except for not take it too far and once it gets taken too far then the conversation becomes toxic then it’s this versus this then it’s everybody’s hating then it’s how do we fix it and that is why disagree with it because if you keep it between the lines that’s great for the sport correct if you take it outside it then it becomes a very toxic conversation everyone gets generalized that everyone is hating and everyone sometimes I’m just going to give you my best work only can I say this you might not like this but everything’s about business right NFL is going to have a game in Brazil not to hang out and have a good time to get more money right when I go the WNBA some of the things I see what’s going on with Caitlyn some of that stuff is fouls I’m just going to be in said y’all call it great defense and it’s and it’s right in your face I get all that but for the game sake for the make the money those are are fouls you can’t be grabbing and touching too much to the to the goat now for real though I’m being serious that’s how they play though like that’s that’s not just and that has to change cuz if you if that doesn’t change can’t though man but no let’s talk about it in in a manner in a realistic manner Shady because we talked about this on camera we’ve never had this conversation on camera we’ll do it quickly have to go to commercial break then we’ll revisit quarterback rules of changed I play defense yeah back when I was playing and it was only 20156 so 8 years ago you could tackle a quarterback and land on him anywhere y but two years after I retired you can no longer land on a quarterback now you have to tackle a quarterback and find a way to while tackling him don’t put your body weight on him back in the Gap years before I got into the league you could pile drive a quarterback but what we realize about the National Football League is that the quarterback drives everything they drive ticket sales they drive television everything so you’re going to protect the quarterback exess as a Defender I hate it is it fair not at all is it fair to the NFL not at all I have seen defensive players tear their ACL trying to avoid landing on a quarterback I think y’all all remember the play after the commercial break I’ll remind you all the name I’ve seen players get hurt trying to protect the quarterback it’s not fair but like shady has alluded to it’s business so I don’t know what you do but I will say this it’s not unheard of to change rules to protect the highlighted and star positions not unheard of at all it might sound crazy for y’all for us I mean they did it in the NBA that’s why they got rid of the hand check that’s why the the the game is more finessed now correct I don’t think that it’s something that that is going to get fixed right now but I also don’t think that Caitlyn Clark is going to look like this next year subscribe here to get the latest from speak and go watch a few segments from our other shows on FS1