“She good, but she not that good,” said NBA star Jeff Teague recently about Caitlin Clark. As one of the most popular modern WNBA players from her rookie season, Clark carries a reputation that continues to divide fans on whether she deserves it or not. It’s always significant when a celebrity, especially a former NBA champion and former NBA All-Star, chooses to comment on it. Unfortunately, in a tale as old as time, if you comment negatively about someone, their defenders will come to the rescue and clap back. This time, it was no different.

Nancy Lieberman, a Women’s basketball legend who won the then-WABA championship back in 1984, recently appeared on an episode of the ‘3s and Ones’ podcast. During the same, she did not hold back in her criticism about the former NBA player, saying that “I don’t agree with Jeff Teague, who I read today said Caitlin Clark, she’s just a good player and she’s not a great player. I love you, but you weren’t a great player. You were serviceable. I know you made the All-Star team one time, but if we’re gonna be honest… Caitlin is a great player.” Yikes!

The clip of the critique, highlighted on the official Instagram account of ‘3s and Ones’, clarified that, unlike what Lieberman said, Teague didn’t say Clark “wasn’t great”, but that she is “not that good.” They also highlighted Teague’s response to Liberman’s remarks.

He took to Instagram, and wrote, “lol you got it og i ain’t gone fry you just said I think she’s good not great…. I think Kelsey is better that’s all but I’m serviceable that’s kind of true my career was kind of like your sons in the big 3 only thing was my mom didn’t draft me nah i’m joking s/o to yall”. Double Yikes!

Teague’s remarks were a reference to how Nancy Lieberman’s son, T. J. Cline, was drafted to Ice Cube’s ‘Big 3’ league, specifically in the Power team, with the WNBA legend coaching at that time. References to Cline receiving special favors because of his mother were not covered that prominently, given the low coverage of the ‘Big 3’. Now, however, Teague has made it a matter of conversation amongst basketball fans.

In situations like these, it is tough to take sides. Unfortunately, Nancy Lieberman could have won more support had she chosen a better way to defend Caitlin Clark. Due to her remarks, it wasn’t that difficult for fans to know who to turn on.

Rachel Nichols and NBA fandom come to Jeff Teague’s defense, “I blame the aggregator”

It didn’t take too long for the video from ‘3s and ones’ to go viral on Instagram. Soon, several people took to the comments section to share their reaction. Among them was renowned sports media personality Rachel Nichols. She wrote, “Shoutout @nancylieberman because she really was a supreme player, and shoutout Jeff Teague for showing respect while standing on business. I blame the aggregator who probably wrote a bad headline saying what Nancy describes having read.”

From the looks of it, Nichols was taking a diplomatic stand and not looking to assign blame to anyone. However, not everyone was as neutral as Nichols. One social media user wrote, “The way people casually dismiss being an NBA All Star like it’s some everyday accomplishment, will never cease to amaze me.”

Sure, the former Atlanta Hawks star may not have reached the star level of LeBron James or Stephen Curry during his 12-year NBA career as a player. Still, he was a championship title holder and an All-Star. In today’s era, it is easy to dismiss a player having secured just one selection to the All-Star team. However, with the rise in competition, it isn’t easy to make the squad when there are only 24 spots available each year, with 12 players selected for each conference. Therefore, even being chosen once makes Teague far from serviceable.

One individual wrote, “They really come for you soon as you mention CC 😂😂 even during the horrible year she’s having”. Caitlin Clark, without a doubt, has not been finding as much success in her 2nd WNBA season. By early July, she had only played in 10 of the team’s 19 games, thanks to multiple injury issues. As of now, in 13 games this season, she has averaged only 16.5 points through 15.1-36.7 field goals, 2.2-8.0 (27.9%) 3-pointers, and 3.2-3.8 (82.0%) field goals. Her average rebounds and blocks count has also dropped from her rookie season, down from 5.7 and 0.7 to 5.0 and 0.5.

One social media user wrote, “She can disagree without belittling Jeff as an a player.” Well, let’s just say Lieberman’s comments came during a period of unprecedented media attention and scrutiny on the WNBA, which has been largely driven by Caitlin Clark’s popularity.

One individual wrote, “We’re talking about an all star.. nba champion guard who played over 10 seasons during the peak of the pg era stop it”. Being drafted in the same class as Stephen Curry, Blake Griffin, and James Harden meant that Teague was carrying a lot of expectations. Overall, he lived up to them and had a career that could be considered moderately successful.

Overall, the majority of reactions saw people united in taking a stance in support of Jeff Teague. After that, Nancy Lieberman might have to seriously consider how she chooses to take a stance on certain issues.