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Over the weekend, the Indiana Fever shellacked the Chicago Sky in each of the team's WNBA season openers. But the biggest story from the game was not the result or any individual performance, it was a foul by Caitlin Clark on Angel Reese.
During the third quarter of Saturday's game, Reese grabbed an offensive rebound and appeared to have a wide-open layup. Clark stopped that from happening, though, by wrapping up Reese's arms and torso. After Clark made contact with her and seemingly gave an extra push at the end, Reese fell to the ground and immediately popped up and tried to confront Clark face-to-face. Aliyah Boston, Clark's teammate, intervened and stopped Reese from doing so as Clark walked toward midcourt.
Reese and Boston were each issued a technical foul, while Clark's common foul was upgraded upon review to a flagrant foul, which Clark questioned immediately upon its announcement, following the third game, and during the post-game press conference.
The foul, as well as Reese's reaction and alleged racial comments made by fans toward the Sky and Reese during the game, has put race back at the center of the Reese-Clark rivalry, which dates back to 2022 when their college teams met in the national championship.
While Clark and Reese have each at times attempted to downplay animosity toward each other and sidestep some of the dynamics, Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN's ‘First Take' that the two should not shy away from beefing with each other.
“It’s about that white player and that black player,” Smith said of Clark and Reese. “Why? Because of the history that they had before they came to the WNBA. You see, it was all instigated — if Angel Reese was never in Caitlin Clark's face, taunting her the way she did … it would have never gotten to this point. But I have never deemed that to be a bad thing. I love that kind of confrontation. I love that kind of heat.”
“As a person who has covered the NBA and grew up watching the NBA,” Smith said, “no matter how great Michael Jordan was, obviously, it started with [Larry] Bird vs. Magic [Johnson]. Yeah, you can talk about Showtime vs. Boston, but that white superstar losing in that national championship game to that dude called Magic at Michigan State when he was at Indiana State, and then ultimately coming to the NBA and they constantly met in the Finals about three times and they owned most of the 80s in terms of the two teams, respectively. The bottom line is it contributed to elevating the popularity, so Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark: Embrace this. It's OK. ‘Cause all you're doing is competing.”
Stephen A. Smith on Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
“It’s about the white player and that black player!” pic.twitter.com/SfaClsIljJ
— VideoMixtape.com (@VideoMixtape_) May 19, 2025
The next time the Fever and Sky are set to play each other is June 7.
