WNBA rookie phenom Caitlin Clark has had one hell of a year. She signed the biggest sponsorship deal in women’s sports history with Nike, quickly set the rookie record for most three-pointers made in a season, and contributed to the Indiana Fever breaking its home attendance record. Now, Clark is putting a cherry on top of an already historic season: Time named her its 2024 Athlete of the Year.
But, of course, you can’t have a conversation about Clark’s career without also discussing her star WNBA counterpart and rumored rival Angel Reese. The narrative of this alleged feud goes back to their collegiate careers, when Reese played for Louisiana State University and Clark for the University of Iowa. After LSU defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes during the 2023 NCAA women’s finals, Reese threw a now-infamous “you can’t see me” gesture at Clark that led fans to vilify Reese and call her “classless,” despite the fact that Clark had made the same gesture in previous games. Rumors of a rivalry continued to spiral after the Fever took Clark as its first pick in the WNBA draft, Reese went seventh to the Chicago Sky, and the two had a few competitive dustups this year on the court.
Clark told Time she doesn’t understand all the fuss. “I don’t get that at all,” Clark said. “We’re not best friends, by any means, but we’re very respectful of one another. Yes, we have had tremendous battles. But when have I ever guarded her? And when has she guarded me?”
ANGEL REESE HIT CAITLIN CLARK WITH THE "YOU CAN'T SEE ME" ???? pic.twitter.com/Zj3mqIzkk9
— ESPN (@espn) April 2, 2023
When asked about Reese’s 2023 gesture, Clark once again made her stance clear: “I didn’t think it was taunting. It really didn’t bother me,” she said. “It’s just like, ‘Why don’t you talk about them winning? Or the incredible run that we went on that nobody would have thought we would have ever gone on?’ The only thing people cared about was this controversy that was really fabricated and made up, and then that has continued to be the case ever since.”
Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Clark addressed her exclusion from the Paris Olympics (“I don’t want to be there because I’m somebody that can bring attention … I want to be there because they think I’m good enough”); her privilege as a white player in a league largely created and dominated by Black women (“The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing”); and the transition from college to professional basketball (“Professional players and professional coaches — this is no disrespect to college women’s basketball — are a lot smarter”).
If this is what Clark’s first season of pro ball looked like, damn, I’m excited for the rest of her career. And hopefully, this is the end of the rivalry narrative, for both Clark’s and Reese’s sakes.
Related
