After Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese downplayed her flagrant foul midway through the third quarter against Caitlin Clark following the Indiana Fever’s win. The WNBA’s No. 1 overall pick echoed those sentiments and brushed off a play that left her on the floor after a layup attempt. Reese tried to swipe at Clark’s hand, but missed the ball and made contact with her opponent’s head. Reese was whistled for a common foul before the play was reviewed and upgraded to a flagrant.
The win marked Clark’s second this season over Reese and sparked a continued rivalry narrative in the aftermath.
“What’s going through my mind? I need to make these two free throws,” Clark said after scoring 23 points with nine rebounds and eight assists. “That’s all I’m thinking about. It’s just part of basketball. It is what it is. She’s trying to make a play on the ball, and get the block. It happens.”
The former college rivals at LSU and Iowa have been at the center of WNBA attention for first-year players and the widespread belief league players are treating Clark differently than others at the defensive end of the floor.
“It’s a basketball play,” Reese said in her postgame media availability. “I can’t control the refs. They affected the game, obviously, a lot tonight… I’m always going for the ball. Y’all are going to play that clip, what, 20 times before Monday? It’s cool. This clip is going to get out somewhere.”
Coming out of the Fever’s 71-70 win over the Sky earlier this season, a physical affair that included Clark being shoulder-checked to the floor by Chennedy Carter resulting in a Flagrant 1, Reese had more to say about the feud.
“It all started from the national championship game and I’ve been dealing with this for two years now,” Reese said, via WGN9 News. “Understanding, yeah, negative things have probably been said about me, but honestly, look where women’s basketball is? People are talking about women’s basketball that you never would think would talk about women’s basketball. People are pulling up to games, we’ve got celebrities are coming to games, sold-out arenas … just because of one single game.
“Just looking at that, I’ll take that role. I’ll take the bad guy role. I’ll continue to take that on for my teammates. I know I’ll go down in history and I’ll look back in 20 years and be like, the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person and I want y’all to realize that.”
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Reese previously said the animosity with Clark was a media creation. Clark mentioned the same, attributing the perceived back and forth to being top competitors.
