Chennedy Carter has blossomed as a go-to scorer on a young Chicago Sky team battling with Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever for WNBA playoff spots.
Carter isn’t one to back down from the action. Her history, which includes being a current teammate of Angel Reese and her alleged cheap shot and taunting of Caitlin Clark back in June, has made her a villain to the Caitlin Clark fans.
Chennedy Carter Not Happy About Ranking 24th On ESPN’s WNBA Top 25 Player’s List
With the second half of the WNBA season about to pop off, Kennedy’s mouth is doing the same concerning ESPN’s rankings of the WNBA’s 25 best players, which had her ranked 24th in the league.
It’s a strong list. There are some great players and to be top 25 out of 144 players in the most competitive women’s pro league on earth is not bad. But Chennedy, like most elite players, has an enormous ego.
In an Instagram story, Carter expressed clear disagreement with her placement on the list.
“How do I average less minutes and my stats top in the league? But I am at the BOTTOM this isn’t adding up, the hate is so obvious,” she wrote. “F/G (field goal) percentage as well.”
The list had Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson ranked at the top of the list with the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart coming in second.
Caitlin Clark Ranked 9 Spots Ahead Of Chennedy Carter
What really ticked Carter off was the fact that Indiana Fever rookie phenom Caitlin Clark, who Carter held to a career-low three-points in one of their matchups in early June, ranked 15th.
Carter isn’t lying when she says she averages fewer minutes per game than many of the players above her on the list, including Clark.
Carter has averaged just 25.1 minutes per game, which is the fewest of any player in the WNBA’s top 33 players in points per game this year and fewer than any player higher than her on the list.
Despite her limited minutes, Carter is plenty efficient, averaging 17.2 points per game, which is -0.1 points more than Clark who is always on the court and among league leaders in minutes played and usage.
In addition, Carter’s 51.8 field goal percentage is also the sixth-best of any player on ESPN’s list. Clark just recently got her field goal percentage above 40 percent.
Wilson, Team USA 3×3 bronze medalist Dearica Hamby and Nneka Ogwumike are the only players scoring at a more efficient rate among players in the top 12 in points per game.
Chennedy Carter Isn’t As Popular As Caitlin Clark But Just As Resilient
Carter isn’t the household name that many of the players ranked above her have become, but she is clearly one of the most resilient WNBA players.
No one knew what to expect when Carter made her return to the WNBA following a one-year hiatus from the league. As a young up and coming star nicknamed “Hollywood” Carter split with Atlanta after alleged playing time tiffs and locker room disputes. Within five weeks of playing with the Los Angeles Sparks, Carter was benched after becoming the youngest player in WNBA history with a 30-point game.
She was also playing for Bursa, a Turkish women’s professional basketball team, in early 2023 and averaged 23.9 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds. Killing.
Next thing you know, she was out of the league as the Sparks waived her that March.
Chennedy Carter Has Blossomed With Chicago Sky Under Teresa Weatherspoon
That was a time of reflection that didn’t last too long. Carter signed a training camp contract and accepted a bench role with the 2024 Chicago Sky, but that didn’t last long as Weatherspoon discovered she is all the dog you could ask for.
But Carter hasn’t minded putting herself at the center of controversy. She represents the hard-nosed guard play that first-year rookie coach Teresa Witherspoon promotes while building her team culture.
In the postgame news conference after her confrontation with Clark that drove Team CC crazy and made Chennedy another villain in the Angel Reese vein, with fans calling for suspensions and expulsions from the league, Carter refused to answer for the incident at the but used her social media to repeatedly lick shots at Clark.
Carter has consistently liked posts that were negative about Clark and suggested that Clark is a flopper. She also loves to engage with Clark’s rabid fan base.
“Troll notifications blowing up. I love it,” Carter wrote on X.
Carter loves the attention. She craves it and that year away from the game has taught her to embrace whatever may come.
Carter even went so far as to diminish Clark’s basketball skills beyond 3-point shooting.
“That’s that on that, cause beside 3-point shooting what does she bring to the table man,” Carter wrote in reply to a post about her postgame press conference on Threads.
Carter definitely shouldn’t be nine spots behind Clark in the rankings, but the popularity of Clark will always boost her game performance in the eyes of fans and media who were never previously interested in the WNBA before the arrival of this year’s rookie class.
Also, Clark is known for putting up long-range threes, taking more than eight per game in the first half of the season. Carter’s game is more old school, going hard to the rack, beating opponents off the dribble, being strong on both ends of the court and executing a smooth midrange game.
Carter’s game has been underrated, and her coach has managed her minutes in a way that she can help harness Carter’s emotions while maximizing her incredible potential on the floor.
The fourth-year player out of Texas A&M, drafted with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA fraft by the Atlanta Dream, has finally found a home in Chicago. The city, coach and team embody everything Carter is about. She’s blossoming under Weatherspoon and will undoubtedly move up this list as Chicago continues to form a strong roster and rise among teams in the WNBA.
