Caitlin Clark denies claims she talks trash in WNBA, admits she'll only do it in self-defense
WNBA phenom Caitlin Clark has provided moments of awe and antagonism on the basketball court.
Clark's rookie year in 2024 and the end of her college career saw several confrontational moments with other players, sometimes including illegal hits on Clark.
Clark's fans levied much of the criticism for those situations against the other players involved, but some figures within women's basketball accused Clark of being a trash talker.
Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon suggested that Clark talks more trash than any other player in the WNBA.
"They jaw at each other, nobody talks more crap than Caitlin, too," Hammon said at a June press conference.
UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma, during an interview on the "Make a Difference With Phil Martelli" podcast in November, said the reason why players go after Clark is because of her trash talk.
"Now she talks a lot of s--- on the court," he continued of Clark. "When people talk about the WNBA, 'Why are these people beating up on Caitlin Clark?' Because she talks a lot of s--- on the court. That's what makes her good. So she's not like this angel walking out there and everybody else is beating her up. Nah. She has got a lot to say."
After an infamous hit against Clark by Chicago Sky player Chennedy Carter in June, former WNBA player Chiney Ogwumike said during an appearance on ESPN that Clark was trash-talking before the hit occurred.
"The WNBA has always been a physical league. ... And on the full sequence of that play, Caitlin was talking, and in this league, no one backs down to trash talk," Ogwumike said.
However, Clark suggested that all of these claims that she talks trash are false during an interview on Netflix's "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman."
"People say that I talk trash, I don't," Clark said.
Clark also added that opposing players don't talk trash to her either.
"No one really talks trash to me, honestly, I swear to you. Maybe it will happen next year," Clark said.
Clark also explained the circumstances that would prompt her to talk trash and admitted a time when it happened.
"The only thing is, if somebody says something to me, I probably will go back at you, but I'm not going to really start it.
"Somebody that did talk trash was [former Phoenix Mercury star] Diana Taurasi. But it was all in good fun. We were playing them at home, and she fouled me, like, pretty hard, kind of from behind. And I turned around, I said to the ref, 'It's intentional, you didn't go for the ball,' [and] she, like, came back at me, and I was like, 'All right, do it again.' And we just kind of kept going back and forth at each other, and then we went down to the other end."
Clark added that later in the game, Taurasi told Clark, "I just love you."
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