Voice of Reason: Sue Bird shuts down WNBA legends vs. Caitlin Clark narrative

The worst part of Caitlin Clark's introduction to the WNBA hasn't been the rough start to her pro career. No, the worst part has been the emergence of a narrative that WNBA legends like Diana Taurasi, Sheryl Swoopes and Sue Bird are somehow against the No. 1 WNBA Draft pick.

WNBA legends essentially standing up for the strength of league pre-Caitlin Clark became spun as WNBA legends vs. Caitlin Clark.

Bird's recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show gave the former Seattle Storm star a chance to set the record straight.

"The sad thing was how it all played out. Having WNBA players...being pitted against Caitlin, I thought that was really unfortunate because that's not the reality," Bird said. "Nobody was questioning Caitlin's ability. Nobody was questioning Caitlin's popularity, what she's done for the sport. How could you? I think, at the end of the day, it's competitive athletes talking about what they've already been through."

WNBA legends like Sue Bird can be pro-WNBA and pro-Caitlin Clark

Taurasi started a fire storm when she said that "reality is coming" for Clark. Her comments, which honestly weren't unreasonable, have been proven more or less correct with Clark struggling in her first two WNBA games.

"There’s been a couple of moments that have led to the narrative around Caitlin’s greatness and it translating. And there’s been some people that have basically put her at the top of the mountain right away, and I think that does feel disrespectful to current WNBA players," Bird said.

Clark's popularity in college created a whole new wave of WNBA fans and brought WNBA talk into mainstream sports talk platforms. They assumed she would waltz into the WNBA and dominate because all they've seen her do is dominate. Most of those new fans and commentators, to paraphrase Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal, owe the WNBA an apology because they really weren't familiar with their game.

"Now everybody is seeing the WNBA is obviously a legitimate professional league, I don’t know what people expected. Diana sort of touched on this, it’s the adult grown women part of this. People have been playing this game for a long time."

Bird expressed bewilderment at people being upset over someone saying a college player would need time to adjust to playing professionally.

That said, she acknowledged that debates like this can be good for the sport. The downside is the impact on the players who get drawn into those debates.

"It was really unfortunate especially for someone like Caitlin. Who wants to hear that these WNBA greats are saying this about her when that wasn't even really what was happening. It was just competition," Bird said. "It all got trumped up. It got bigger than it was."

That's the problem with this whole debate. It should be possible for WNBA greats to meet hyperbole with reason on this topic without it being turned into a feud. Unfortunately, nuance is rarely included in the sports debate machine. It's easier to pit women against women than really listen to what they're saying.