Clark–Reese rivalry

The Clark–Reese rivalry or Reese–Clark rivalry is a media-based rivalry between basketball players Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, which, for pundits and fans, began in the 2023 NCAA championship game in which Reese made a taunting gesture to Clark.^[1] In that game, Reese (15 points, 10 rebounds) with the LSU Tigers defeated Clark (30 points, 2 rebounds) with the Iowa Hawkeyes. The 2024 NCAA championship tournament solidified the rivalry in a record-setting rematch where Clark (41 points, 12 assists) and Iowa defeated Reese (17 points, 20 rebounds) and LSU.^[2] Publications have credited the rivalry for the significant increase in the public interest for women's basketball, both in college and in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), while its ostensible racial undertones have also been widely discussed in the media.

Caitlin Clark

Angel Reese

History

Background

Clark and Reese first met on the court on the Amateur Athletic Union (U16) circuit, playing for All Iowa Attack and Team Takeover, respectively.^[3] Reese was considered the number two player in her high school class by ESPN, while Clark was ranked number four in the same class.^[4] In 2019, Reese (18 points, 11 rebounds) led Team Takeover in the Nike EYBL (U17) championship in a 57–47 win over defending champions All Iowa Attack, and Clark (22 points, 7 assists), in the final.^[5] They first played against each other collegiately during Big Ten play in their first two college seasons, with Reese at Maryland and Clark at Iowa. Maryland defeated Iowa in all three meetings, including a 104–84 victory in the 2021 Big Ten tournament championship game, in which Clark scored 21 points with 8 rebounds to Reese's 6 points with 6 rebounds from the bench.^[6]

College basketball

In the 2023 NCAA Division I women's basketball championship game, Reese led LSU to its first national title, defeating Clark's Iowa team, and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. With an average of 9.9 million viewers, it was (at that time) the most-watched women's college basketball game in history thanks to the Caitlin Clark effect.^[7]

At the end of the game, Reese taunted Clark, making the "you can't see me" gesture. Sports media widely alleged that Clark had made the same gesture to opponents earlier in the tournament, in Iowa's Elite Eight game against Louisville. However, Louisville's Hailey Van Lith rejected the allegation, stating that, actually, Clark had only momentarily gestured to Iowa’s strength coach.^[8] In the title game, Reese also pointed to her ring finger in reference to LSU's imminent championship ring.^[9] Following the game, Reese faced substantial criticism for perceived unsportsmanlike behavior, while many, including Clark, defended Reese and rejected the criticism, characterizing Reese's demeanor as coming from the "competitive nature" of the game.^[10]

The media have denoted the Reese taunt as the beginning of a rivalry between her and Clark.^[1]

Clark and Reese's final collegiate meeting was in the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. Clark recorded 41 points and 12 assists, leading Iowa to a win over LSU, while Reese had 17 points and 20 rebounds before fouling out. At the time, the game was the most-watched women's college basketball game in history, with an average of 12.3 million viewers tuning in at any time.^[2]

Professional basketball

Both players were first-round picks in the 2024 WNBA draft, with Clark selected first overall by the Indiana Fever and Reese selected seventh by the Chicago Sky.^[11]

On June 1, 2024, they met for the first time in the WNBA, with the Fever defeating the Sky. During the game, Reese applauded from the bench when Sky guard Chennedy Carter knocked Clark to the floor on an inbounds play.^[12] After the game, Reese refused to appear at the post-game press conference and was fined $1,000 for not making herself available.^[13] Speaking to the press three days after the game, Reese commented on the WNBA's recent "surge in popularity," stating that "the reason [more people are] watching women's basketball is not just because of one person."^[14] In contrast, an economic analysis of the WNBA 2024 season later determined that Clark's presence was responsible for more than 25% of the WNBA's revenue. A finance professor, Ryan Brewer, told The Indianapolis Star, "The numbers are so staggering. They don't even seem real."^[15]

2024 Rookie of the Year

Clark won the 2024 Rookie of the Year award, but not without controversy, as one anonymous vote was cast for Reese, denying Clark a unanimous decision. Many voters and analysts were outraged, with ESPN host Andraya Carter stating, "Hats off to Caitlin, should have been unanimous, but I'll stop there," and, "If you were the person who had that one vote, you should be able to stand on it, and we should know who you are."^[16] Some fans believe the stray vote was cast by Sheryl Swoopes, who had recently criticized Clark, claiming her NCAA D1 scoring record "wasn't legitimate,"^[17] which she later apologized for.^[18]

Racial commentary

The media raised some controversies following the 2023 NCAA championship tournament. Some commentators asserted that Reese faced harsher criticism from fans for her taunts because she is black, while Clark, who is white, did not receive the same level of scrutiny.^[10][19] However, WNBA Finals MVP Jonquel Jones set the record straight, stating, "I don't think it's Fever fans," but fairweather fans using Caitlin "as fuel," only to realize, 'Oh no, she's actually not racist.'^[20]

Popularity

See also: Caitlin Clark effect

In a discussion about the impact on the WNBA of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and others, white sports analyst Pat McAfee called Clark a "white bitch superstar." He subsequently apologized, claiming he was trying to explain that she deserves "more credit than other newcomers for the league's increased popularity."^[21]

"I would like the media people [to] just call it for what it is, there's one white bitch for the Indiana team who is a superstar. Is there a chance that people just enjoy watching her play basketball because [of] how electrifying she is, what she did, what she stood for, [and] how she went about [getting it]? Maybe. But instead, we have to hear people say that we only like her because she's white." - Pat McAfee.^[21]

On March 25, 2025, ESPN basketball analyst and former Georgetown Hoyas player Monica McNutt, while interviewed by the BBC's Katty Kay about the increase in popularity of the WNBA, attributed most of it to the "exciting" rivalry between Reese and Clark. She added, "I think Caitlin represented, and again, some of this to me probably is not fair to her, because it was not anything that she said or was truly based on her personality, but she [is] a white girl from the middle of America."^[22]

Sponsorships

Clark's rise in popularity and her subsequent sponsorship deals were attributed by former ESPN commentator Jemele Hill as due in part to her "race and sexuality," beyond the athlete's on-the-court achievements. Hill opined that anyone who did not say it would be "naive."^[23] Las Vegas Aces star player A'ja Wilson, asked by the media about the potential racial element in Clark's endorsements, responded that, indeed, it is a "matter of black and white," because, she claimed, "you can be top notch at what you are as a black woman [basketball player], but yet maybe that's something that people don't want to see [in consumer products]." Wilson said the whole situation makes her "blood boil," because she sees all the hard work put in by black women "swept underneath the rug."^[24] Victoria Jackson, sports historian and associate professor of history at Arizona State University, commented, "There are racial reasons for why Clark has been able to kind of break off into a completely different stratosphere from players that came before her." About Clark being characterized as a "generational talent," Professor Jackson remarked that, "athletes [who] could be placed in that category [and] who have been Black women have not had that sort of gushing attention."^[23]

This minimization of Clark's profile, impact, and accolades^[25] has been labeled a "Torch of Invalidation" by journalist Mark Barrett and likely stems from some combination of reverse racism, jealousy, gatekeeping, and "plain old snobbishness."^[26]

Flagrant Fouls

Veteran sportscaster Bob Costas, commenting on the June 2024 Fever-Sky game in Outkick in response to a hard foul on Clark, pointed out that a flagrant foul committed by Carter against Reese less than a week earlier received very little media attention because both players are black, and, therefore, the incident did not "spark as much conversation."^[27] Costas added that "the second-most famous player to the average, non-initiated WNBA fan right now is Angel Reese."^[28] CNN sports journalist Cari Champion agreed, and thanked Costas for acknowledging that fouls like Carter's have happened since the league's inception. Champion went on to claim that "no one cared about the WNBA when women of a certain color [i.e., black women] were beating up and bruising each other," but now "we have this star, this woman [Clark] that people love, [and] they want to protect her."^[27]

Social Media

A Rice University study by a PhD candidate, published in Sage Journals in March 2025, examined X/Twitter reactions in "fan discourse" related to hand gestures that Clark and Reese made during two different 2023 NCAA tournament games. The study analyzed some 700,000 tweets before, during, and after the two incidents, and claimed that public reactions were "not just different but racialized."^[29] On one hand, Clark's hand gesture during the Elite Eight game, made in the direction of Hailey Van Lith while looking at the Iowa bench, did not meet "much controversy." On the other hand, Reese made the same gesture, followed by a second gesture pointing to her ring finger, in the closing moments of the National Title game, while walking in front of and staring at Clark, and was met with a "starkly different" reaction.^[30] According to Hailey, right after the Elite Eight game, she texted Clark and apologized for the media coverage, and "we [laughed] about it because she did it to her strength coach. She didn't do it to anyone on our team, especially me."^[8]

Accolades

In response to Caitlin Clark's Athlete of the Year award from Time magazine,^[31] the Atlanta Black Star reported "mixed outrage/support" among Simone Biles fans. Even though Biles had already won the award in 2021, some fans claimed 2024 was "white privilege at its height." Fans that supported Clark said, "while [Biles] is great and literally wins everything by herself, she’s not in a team sport, and [Clark] changed the entire [WNBA] within 5 months; [name] another player that ever did this? Men or women."^[32] Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson also stated disapproval of Clark being named Athlete of the Year and would have preferred the award given to the WNBA "as a whole," for the league's rise in popularity, which she claimed was "not just [because of] Caitlin Clark, it’s also [because of Angel] Reese."^[33][34]

Clark, for her part, stated^[31] that she's "cognizant of the racial underpinnings of her stardom," adding:

I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege. A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate Black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.

Her remarks were met with an adverse reaction from commentators^[35] such as Outkick host and women's sports activist Riley Gaines, who expressed her "disappointment in Clark," saying she "missed the mark." Gaines added that "Clark needed to...remain neutral.”^[36] Fox News' Megyn Kelly accused Clark of making "condescending" and "fake" comments about "white privilege."^[37] Asked about the reaction to her statement, Clark said her "best skill is blocking out the noise."^[37]

Developments

Reese has often been characterized in the media as the antagonist in the rivalry, a role she has accepted, in order, as she has stated, to "generate more interest in women's basketball," adding that she's willing to "take the bad guy role... and be that for my teammates."^[38] Some journalists have criticized and disputed the accuracy of her portrayal as the "villain" in the rivalry.^[39] Reese herself stated she's "OK with it [the villain portrayal]" and "appreciative to be a part of this journey,” since "everybody wants this [increased spotlight]."^[40][41]

Sportsmanship

Reese and Clark have both publicly downplayed the perceived rivalry. After the 2023 NCAA championship game, Clark described herself as a fan of Reese, while Reese praised Clark, saying she loves her and hopes they can be teammates in the future.^[42] Before meeting in the 2024 NCAA tournament, Reese clarified that the rivalry was "not personal," and both characterized their relationship as being driven by competition.^[43] Later that year, Clark discussed her relationship with Reese, saying, "We're not best friends, by any means, but we're very respectful of one another."^[44]

Legacy

The Clark–Reese rivalry has drawn comparisons to the rivalry between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, which helped popularize the NBA in the 1980s. Analysts have noted the Clark's standalone impact rivals Magic and Bird's. However, during Clark's injuries, viewership, attendance, and ticket prices dropped 48% despite Reese and other stars such as Paige Bueckers still playing. ^{[1][23][45][46]}

Asked about the rivalry's "dark undertones" during an appearance on CNBC program Power Lunch in 2024, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert praised the rivalry for "drawing attention to the league" and "eliminating apathy in the WNBA." She was criticized by Women's National Basketball Players Association executive director Terri Jackson, as well as by other WNBA players, for not addressing the ongoing abusive discourse. Commissioner Engelbert subsequently posted a more direct response to the "hateful online rhetoric."^[47]