What rivalry? Angel Reese is excited to team up with her so-called nemesis Caitlin Clark at this year’s WNBA All-Star game.
In a little over a week, the 22-year-old basketball stars will play on the same team for the very first time in Phoeniz, Arizona. After being left off this year’s Olympic roster, the rookies will get to face off against Team USA as part of this year’s All-Star Team, which is partially determined by WNBA viewers. While Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark earned the most fan votes of any player with 700,733 votes, Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese earned 381,518 votes of her own.
“I know so many fans are gonna come out to watch both of us,” Reese said told NBA Today on July 10, per CBS Sports. “I know a lot of people are just gonna come to Phoenix, I’m sure it’s already sold out. Being able to be in that environment, we’re gonna be playing together for a while so this is not gonna be the [last] time. I know we’ll be All-Stars again, and hopefully, 2028 we’ll be Olympians together.”
I have no doubt that’s true. Their first year isn’t even over and Reese is on a record-breaking double-double hot streak spanning 14 consecutive games. Meanwhile, Clark just became the first rookie in WNBA history to record a triple-double during a recent game against the New York Liberty, one of the WNBAs top teams.
Clark, meanwhile, says the game will be “fun” for “all of us,” but doesn’t want her team-up with Reese to overshadow other players’ accomplishments. “I know people are going to be really excited about it, but I hope it doesn’t take away from everybody else,” Clark said earlier this month. This is a huge accomplishment for everybody on Team USA and everybody on Team WNBA. They all deserve the same praise.”
Ever since their infamous NCAA championship face-off in 2023, the 22-year-old basketball stars have been at the center of toxic discourse that has extended into their first season in the WNBA. But no matter how many times Clark and Reese deny harboring ill-feelings towards the other, viewers continue to compare their record-breaking stats, interviews, and even their game day ‘fits to determine which player deserves their hype—and the WNBA’s coveted Rookie of the Year title.
“I’m pretty sure the only people that view this as a rivalry is all of you,” Clark bluntly told a reporter during a post-game press conference on June 21. “Like, to us it’s just a game of basketball.”
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