The ongoing saga surrounding WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes’ apparent unwillingness to acknowledge the accomplishments of Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark took a strange, sad turn on Monday.

Nancy Lieberman (who went out of her way to praise Clark during the Fever’s final game broadcast) appeared on “The Stephen A. Smith” show on Monday.

While there, Lieberman talked about how a conversation about the Fever rookie destroyed the friendship between her and Swoopes.

“(Swoopes said) that Caitlin … was a fifth-grader, that she took 40 shots a game and that her records were illegal,” Lieberman said, referring to Swoopes’ controversial comments during her appearance on the YouTube show “Gil’s Arena” in January.

“I got off the rat race and called (Swoopes) as a friend,” Lieberman said. “And I said, ‘You know, you can say whatever you want. You can have your own opinion about anybody. But you have to get the stats right.’

“I mean, the facts are important,” Lieberman continued, then noted that the whole controversy would be over if Swoopes had simply admitted that she had gotten the facts wrong after she reported them.

“Well, she was mad at me on the phone. And I said, ‘Sheryl, I’m not doing anything to hurt you. I’m just sharing something with you.’ And so our relationship is pretty much over at that point. I tried to talk to her at the Final Four, but she wouldn’t talk to me,” Lieberman said.

Swoopes responded to this video on X, saying, “Here you go! I understand what you’re trying to do with your boy @stephenasmith but it’s not working. You know exactly what happened. And the same goes for my life without you (and him). You wanna go there?”

Swoopes certainly has her own version of the story, but in the end, the former friendship between the two basketball icons was shattered by a conversation about Clark.