There’s only one thing Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese care about right now—and it’s not the WNBA Rookie of the Year title.
On August 30, Clark’s Indiana Fever defeated Reese’s Chicago Sky in their final matchup of the regular season with a final score of 100-81. Despite the Fever’s blowout victory, both 22-year-old basketball players hit major milestones on the court: Clark scored a career-high 31 points and 12 assists, while Reese became the first WNBA rookie to record 23 double-doubles in a season, ending the game with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
As Clark and Reese continue to smash records, many WNBA fans have formed intense opinions about which star player has earned this year’s Rookie of the Year award—an argument Clark has little interest in discussing. “I think me and Angel would both give the same answer,” Clark told reporters during a post-game press conference. “You don’t wake up and think about individual awards. I know that’s what all of you think we do. I know we don’t, like, that’s what everybody wants to make this about.”
According to Clark, both of their teams are singularly concerned with making this year’s playoffs, which feature the top eight teams in the WNBA. “That’s our main focus,” Clark said, adding that it would be “selfish” to worry about her own accolades. Right now, the Indiana Fever hold the sixth position in the league while the Chicago Sky are clinging to that eighth spot. “That’s a selfish thing to just care about an individual award.”
“I’m sure [Angel] would give you the same exact answer—I’m sure she has given you the same exact answer,” Clark added. “So for us, everybody can write that but our focus is on winning basketball games. It’s simple as that, like, it’s winning basketball games. And that was the same story for us when we were in college.”
She continued, “Like, if you’re playing basketball, to get one individual awards, no matter what level you’re at, you’re doing it wrong. And that’s not fun. And that’s not being good teammate.”
Caitlin Clark was right about Angel Reese’s answer, of course. The Chicago Sky rookie was asked to comment on the ROTY race during her own press conference, and her statement matched Clark’s point by point. “We don’t either care about Rookie of the Year,” Reese told reporters. “I think you guys have made the big thing. We haven’t.”
Reese continued, “We both want to win. We’ve been wanting to win, and that’s what we’ve done in our collegiate career. We played against each other in two—last year and the year before in the March Madness tournament. So we’re just trying to do whatever it takes to win. That’s what’s important right now.”
It feels like every time Clark and Reese go head to head—or even play on the same team—the two are forced to address their so-called rivalry. Clearly, the only thing left to do is work it out on the remix—and by remix, I mean Angel Reese’s upcoming podcast, Unapologetically Angel. Of course, if Clark ever makes guest appearance, X.com might actually break down.
