Nancy Lieberman blasts WNBA’s treatment of Caitlin Clark: ‘There’s envy’

WNBA players see the wrong king of green when they look at Caitlin Clark.
On The Post’s “Schein Time” with Adam Schein, Basketball Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman claimed “there’s envy” behind fellow WNBA players getting physical with the Fever star.
“I mean, Caitlin gets the crap beat out of her. … It’s definitely something that there’s jealousy,” Lieberman said. “There’s envy. Because to me, she’s in the top 3 or 4 players in this league. Some players play the game. Matter of fact, you’re seeing a lot of players right there that have played the game. And she changed the game. Candace Parker changed the game. Nancy Lieberman changed the game. Taurasi changed the game. There’s people like that.”
Instead, the former Phoenix Mercury star said Clark’s fellow players should give their golden goose a little more respect.
“She is the economic engine. So I understand that you should not get in anyone else’s pocketbook because she has made virtually everybody who is under contract now,” the Brooklyn native added. “You will be millionaires if you’re not already. And there would be no $2.2 billion in media rights being given to the WNBA. There would not be commercial jets right now given to the WNBA.”
The statements come amidst a firestorm of controversy surrounding the treatment of Clark, who was hit in the throat by Mercury guard Alyssa Thomas on June 24.
Thomas was given a flagrant two foul — two days after the game — and a one-game suspension.
The play reignited the debate around the WNBA’s obligation to protect a player who has played a key role in attracting viewers and TV money in her 2.5 WNBA seasons — with Clark herself calling out the discourse around the foul.
This week, 11 Republican lawmakers sent a scathing letter to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert over what they’re calling “repeated acts of unnecessary physical hostility and violence” toward the Fever star.
Lieberman has long been a fierce supporter and defender of Clark — whom she once called the “Taylor Swift of women’s basketball” — saying she would have punched Chennedy Carter when the then-Sky guard hip-checked Clark during a 2024 game.
“I think people take shots at her and you gotta look back and go, what kind of insecurities do you have that you don’t like this player?,” Lieberman told Schein. “The players who are taking shots at her right now, you’re doing this out of emotion and it’s a bad look. It’s a horrible look.

“I am sorry that you don’t move the needle. Ninety-nine percent of the players in the league play in the league, but you don’t move the proverbial needle. That makes this a business. I’m sorry. It’s the way it is. And you know, I was an unpaid pioneer. You’re paid pioneers. You have somebody who’s doing something special. It’s not her fault and Angel Reese’s fault that they came into the pros, and they had millions and millions of followers from their collegiate career.”