Right now, one of the biggest stories in basketball isn’t the upcoming NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks. It’s the drama surrounding two WNBA rookies — Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
In an interview with WGN Sports on Monday, Chicago Sky’s Reese spoke about the aggressive play Clark has been experiencing in the league, especially after Sky teammate Chennedy Carter retroactively received a Flagrant 1 foul for appearing to hip-check Clark to the ground in Saturday’s matchup.
“It’s just competition. I feel like that fuels our fire… we go off of energy and we are super competitive every single day,” Reese said.
Additionally, the LSU alum talked about the recent surge of women’s basketball, saying that Clark’s star power isn’t the only reason more people have their eyes on the sport.
“People are talking about women’s basketball that you never would think would be talking about women’s basketball. People are coming to games. We got celebrities coming to games. Sold out arenas…” Reese said. “The reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me, too. I want y’all to realize that.”
“I’ll take the bad guy role,” Reese added.
The longstanding rivalry between Clark and Reese — which dates back to their time in college — was reignited on Saturday when Reese seemed to celebrate the foul on her fellow rookie. After the game, she was fined $1,000 for not making herself available to media.
In 11 games for the Fever, Clark is averaging 15.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game. In seven games for the Sky, Reese is averaging 10.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals.
Clark was named the WNBA’s rookie of the month for May on Monday.
