Chicago Sky star Angel Reese and Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark often hear their names in the same breath.
The two were college basketball’s biggest stars when Reese was at LSU and Clark was at Iowa, including a showdown in the 2023 NCAA Championship game where Reese mimicked Clark’s “you can’t see me” celebration in the final seconds.
The rivalry between the two has been at the forefront of women’s basketball discourse ever since. Now, they both lead their respective WNBA franchises, which happen to be very close to each other.
Reese was asked about the perceived rivalry during an appearance at a Complex Conversations event and how much of it was real compared to generated by the media.
“I think it’s just competition, it’s been competition since college,” Reese said during the interview. “Being able to play against Caitlin, I’ve been playing against Caitlin since we were probably in eighth or ninth grade. We both were really competitive in AAU. I went to Maryland, she went to Iowa so we competed there and then finally being able to compete in the national championship. People don’t know the legacy of us being able to play against each other for a really long time.”
Reese set the stage of the long history competing against Clark but acknowledged that social media has taken it to another level.
“Obviously social media is going to put two women against each other,” Reese continued. “I think it’s been something that’s negative, but also positive. I think it shines light on women’s basketball so I’ll take that of being able to be the person that gets the hate but I know that at the end of the day I’m growing women’s basketball and helping women’s basketball.”
Social media is often a scary place, especially amongst Reese-Clark discourse. When asked whether she thought Clark’s fans can cross the line, Reese mentioned she thought it was more fans in general and that people don’t realize her and fellow athletes are human, noting that it’s just basketball.
But when it comes to the root whether the rivalry with Clark is genuine or exaggerated by the internet, Reese noted, “I don’t have any hard feelings toward her, she doesn’t have any hard feelings toward me but yeah, it gets crazy sometimes.”
You can check out the rest of Reese’s Complex Conversations interview on 360 with Speedy here:
