Paul Pierce Puts Foot In Mouth With ‘White Girl From Iowa’ Caitlin Clark Take

Paul Pierce, like most casual observers, was thoroughly impressed with Caitlin Clark and her performance Monday night in Iowa’s Elite Eight win over LSU.

Pierce’s reasoning, though, might not sit well with some people.

The Basketball Hall of Famer was on the rarely watched “Undisputed” program Tuesday morning on FS1. The conversation among Pierce, former NFL wideout Keyshawn Johnson and professional blowhard Skip Bayless turned to Clark’s 41-point masterpiece over the Tigers that propelled the Hawkeyes to the Final Four.

“It’s beyond that, Key. I’m gonna just keep it 100 with you. We saw a white girl in Iowa do it to a bunch of Black girls. That made it, like, oh, that gained my respect,” Pierce said, as seen in a clip posted to X by Awful Announcing. “That gained my respect. That’s, like, oh she didn’t do this to some other little white girls that was over here in Colorado or wherever.

“She did it to some girls from LSU who we thought were some dogs, defending champs and put ’em on her knee and spanked ’em.”

As Pierce was finishing his rant, Johnson piped up to say the obvious: “But she’s good,” he said of the National Player of the Year who led the country in both points and assists.

“I know (she’s good), but I didn’t expect that, though,” Pierce answered.

At best, it’s a bombastic take from Pierce to get people talking about him, an over-the-top hot take to go viral. If that was the only objective, it’s probably going to be a success. At its worst, though, it’s an opinion that’s wildly offensive — to a lot of people.

It’s obviously insulting to Clark, who is widely viewed as one of the best women’s college basketball players ever. She’s a two-time unanimous first-team All-American selection who has scored more points than any player in college basketball — man or woman. It’s insulting to a team that beat a 36-0 South Carolina team in the Final Four last season to get to the national championship game. The Hawkeyes lost that game to LSU but bounced back this season to go 29-4 in the regular season and avenged their loss Monday night.

It’s insulting to every team Iowa has played this season or any season in which Clark has taken the court, quite frankly. That includes, as Pierce said, “those other little white girls” on a 22-win Colorado team that hung with Iowa in the Sweet 16 before Clark and company pulled away in the second half.

And it’s insulting to Angel Reese and the rest of the LSU Tigers as if there’s any shame in losing to a team led by Clark.

We’ve come to expect this from Pierce at this point, and it’s basically what Bayless and his entire show are based around. In the same show Tuesday, Pierce painted with a broad brush, calling European NBA players “soft, finesse-type players,” adding “No one considers European players tough, especially from France.” Quite the day from the so-called “Truth.”