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Basketball fans reacted to the Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese's dustup during the WNBA season opener of the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky on Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Reese confronted Clark after the latter's hard foul at 4:38 in the third quarter of the Fever's 93-58 season-opening win. In the play, Reese grabbed an offensive rebound and was about to go up for a shot at the rim when Clark slapped her arm. The ball was knocked, and Reese hit the deck.
When the Sky star got up, she immediately went after Clark. The Fever star walked away as Reese tried to confront her.
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WNBA fans reacted to the minor scuffle, with Reese catching strays from several fans.
"Angel Reese has been waiting for this moment her whole life," one fan tweeted.
"She hate Caitlin so bad," another fan commented.
"Biggest flop of all time lmao," a fan wrote.
Others thought Clark's hard foul was just a common basketball play.
"Common foul bruh, why she tryna fight? Love how Clark just walks away," one fan posted.
"Prevented an easy layup with a foul. What is Reese pissed about???" another fan wrote.
"I swear Angel just wants random beef with her that's a normal **s foul lmao," a fan said.
Following a replay review, Caitlin Clark's foul was upgraded to flagrant one. The officials also assessed technical fouls on Reese and the Fever's Aliyah Boston, who stepped in between the two young stars. The two technicals offset, but Reese was awarded two free throws due to the flagrant foul. She went 1-for-2.
Many fans believe the incident added another chapter to Clark and Reese's longstanding rivalry, which could be attributed to their college days. Reese's LSU Tigers won the 2023 national championship at the expense of Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes.
However, Clark won the rematch a year later when the Hawkeyes eliminated the Tigers in the Elite Eight.
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese downplay the flagrant foul as part of the game
In their separate post-game interviews on Saturday, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese downplayed the incident. Reese had a blunt and short response:
"Basketball play, refs got it right, move on," Reese said.
On the other hand, Clark explained that the upgraded foul was not "malicious."
"Let's not make it anything that it's not," Clark said. "It was just a good play on the basketball. I'm not sure what the refs saw to upgrade it, and that's up to their discretion after watching the initial whatever happened during the play and then whatever happened after."
Reese led the Chicago Sky with 12 points and 17 rebounds, while Clark finished with a triple-double (20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists), the third of her career.
Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever returns to the action on Tuesday against the Atlanta Dream, while Chicago will host the defending champions, New York Liberty, on Thursday.
