Image by CCS Pictures, CC BY-SA 2.0, & timweight, CC BY-SA 2.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.
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During a recent FIBA Women’s World Cup qualifying game, cameras caught a somewhat frosty exchange between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. The brief moment quickly reignited their well-known rivalry. The moment happened when Team USA secured a dominant 91-48 win over Puerto Rico. It all went down when Reese extended her hand toward Clark, seemingly for a high-five.
Clark, for whatever reason, just walked in the opposite direction without acknowledging the gesture. That left Reese with her hand hanging in the air for a moment, and it looked a little awkward. What makes this particular moment so noteworthy is that Clark and Reese are actually teammates right now, both competing for a coveted spot on the upcoming FIBA Women’s World Cup roster.
This isn’t the first time these two have been at the center of a major basketball moment. According to Complex, their initial major clash happened during the 2023 NCAA women’s championship game. Reese, playing for LSU, celebrated her team’s victory late in the game by pointing to her ring finger in Clark’s direction and making the “You can’t see me” hand gesture. It was a bold move that instantly cemented their competitive dynamic in the public eye.
That high-five moment felt a little awkward
That intense history continued right into the WNBA when both players entered the league. During the 2024 season, several physical plays erupted between Clark’s Indiana Fever and Reese’s Chicago Sky. Those moments only fueled the conversation about how heated their matchups really are.
You could practically feel the tension through the screen during those games. One notable incident occurred when Reese delivered a hard foul on Clark while they were both battling for a rebound. It felt like a direct continuation of their college rivalry, just on a professional stage. We’ve seen other incidents in the NBA recently, like when an NBA star blamed his coach for the ‘unethical’ accusations after beating Kobe’s record. However, that wasn’t from a beef, like this incident.
In a subsequent tense Fever-Sky game, things escalated even further. Reese pushed Indiana forward Natasha Howard during a fight for an offensive board, and then Clark fouled Reese before she could even attempt a shot. Reese ended up falling to the floor, but she quickly bounced back up to confront Clark. Officials reviewed the play, and they ended up upgrading Clark’s foul to a flagrant, while Reese and Indiana center Aliyah Boston also got technical fouls.
Clark later addressed that particular sequence in a postgame interview, explaining that there was “nothing malicious about it, just a good take foul.”
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