“The fire was there, but Caitlin came, and she poured gasoline all over that thing,” Sue Bird said in praise of Caitlin Clark. The WNBA Rookie of the Year receiving the TIME Athlete of the Year award has raised all kinds of heckles around the league. But retired player Bird was and remains a CC fan. Rather, she remains a fan of the sport she played for 19 years as a pro and the league she played it in.

On her A Touch More podcast with partner and soccer legend Megan Rapinoe, Bird makes it clear, “There’s an argument for any other athlete to be Athlete of the Year other than Caitlin Clark.” Among dissenters who don’t agree with TIME’s decision is famously Sheila Johnson, a co-owner of the Washington Mystics. And while it doesn’t seem like Sue Bird is pointing out anyone in particular, it does answer Johnson’s points too.

“Like, it is a phenomenon, she is a phenomenon built on a league that has been around, not for one year but 28 years…There is no Caitlin Clark without the WNBA,” Bird declares. Not counting the upcoming three teams in the expansion draft, 12 teams of 12 players in the W make it 132 players. While she makes a case for Clark, Bird does not dismiss the other 131 players either.

“In the height that it reached this year – of course the player, of course, the stardom, and of course the long threes. She put the ball in the basket. Of course, she’s deserving. Both things are true at one time,” the former Seattle Storm player continues.

Sheila Johnson had suggested that TIME put all of the WNBA players on their cover and for 2024, declare it the League of the Year. It wouldn’t be completely outlandish because of the way the league has grown this year, with everything from rising viewership to more fans to merch sales. In its inaugural year, the entire USA soccer team won the honor, of which Megan Rapinoe was incidentally a part.

Nevertheless, Bird argues that no one could have deserved this more than Caitlin Clark. Not denying that the players before her had set the stage for her to propel the sport, Bird also made an interesting comparison.

Sue Bird believes the WNBA fire was already ablaze, Caitlin Clark just poured gasoline on it

With the way times are changing, the WNBA might have shot into the spotlight at one point or another. There was always some measure of support for it, it was just taking its own sweet time. But the interest was there. And then Caitlin Clark came in as a catalyst that multiplied that interest tenfold.

On The Deal podcast, Sue Bird told hosts Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, “The way I frame it is, ‘fire was going.’ It was burning. And it was burning brighter. Even if you look at the 2023 viewership in the WNBA Finals, it was way higher than 2022. It was starting, the fire was there, but Caitlin came, and she poured gasoline all over that thing and just took it to another level.”

Even if one of the main arguments of disrespect around the W was that women players did not dunk, Bird points out, suddenly there was this college girl with her signature logo threes. And the pure way she played the game demanded respect. Now that she’s here, sure there’s attention on her. But the spotlight is slowly covering the entire W as well.