The biggest rivalry in women’s basketball added a new chapter Thursday, albeit under the radar.
In the wake of the NBA Finals, and with the World Cup in full swing on North American soil, sports fans awakened Friday morning to the realization that yes, in fact, the three-year-old rivalry between WNBA stars Angel Reese of the Atlanta Dream and Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever remains a thing.
During the Dream’s 108-101 victory over the Fever on Thursday night in Indiana, Reese reacted first with disbelief and then with mockery when an official called her for a foul on Clark.
The incident occurred with 8:40 remaining in the second quarter and Atlanta clinging to a 31-29 lead.
With the Fever in possession of the ball, Clark ran off a screen toward the top of the key. There, Reese, who guarded the screening player, had set up defensively.
When Clark, at 6’0″ and 157 pounds, ran into Reese at 6’4″ and listed at 165 pounds, the latter appeared to extend her right elbow, at which point Clark threw up her hands and stumbled, prompting a foul call.
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Reese responded first by throwing her arms in the air and walking away. Then, she threw her head back in an exaggerated way and stuck out her tongue to mock Clark, who Reese clearly believed had embellished the contact between them.
Clark finished the game with 26 points and 7 assists in a losing effort. The victorious Reese also had a strong statistical game with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
Readers may watch the play in the following clip posted to the social media platform X:
Angel 😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/jV4IrEwH7W
— Shabazz 💫 (@ShowCaseShabazz) June 19, 2026
The rivalry began in 2023, when Reese’s LSU Tigers defeated Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes in the Women’s NCAA Championship Game. At the end of that game, Reese went out of her way to taunt Clark.
Then, in 2024, Clark’s Hawkeyes got revenge by knocking Reese’s Tigers out of the tournament.
Next, the rivalry followed the two women out of college and into their pro careers. By that point, Reese, who is black, and Clark, who is white, had become proxies for a larger, media-driven debate over “race.”
Moreover, the WNBA and its players did not help matters. In fact, they often left the impression that they would rather preserve their niche audience of black and LGBT women than see the league succeed on a grand scale because of Clark’s popularity.
Veteran sports analyst Jason Whitlock certainly has seen it that way.
“If we have to sacrifice the popularity of women’s basketball to stay on message, to stay on agenda that this is a league dominated and controlled by black women and lesbian women and we’re hostile to white women and heterosexual women, we will sacrifice popularity, attention, ratings, everything to stay on message,” Whitlock said of the fledgling league as recently as May.
The analyst, however, who has ranked among Clark’s biggest champions, has not entirely let her off the hook.
“No one has more black matriarchy fatigue than me. Seeing Caitlin Clark stick it to the black matriarchy basketball league was fun until I fully realized she was the baby of Steph Curry and Draymond Green with no intention of improving her behavior,” Whitlock wrote Sunday on X, referring to Stephen Curry and Draymond Green of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
No one has more black matriarchy fatigue than me. Seeing Caitlin Clark stick it to the black matriarchy basketball league was fun until I fully realized she was the baby of Steph Curry and Draymond Green with no intention of improving her behavior.
— Jason Whitlock (@jasonwhitlock) June 14, 2026
Then, on Friday, Whitlock elaborated while accusing a pro-Clark X user of “idolatry.”
“Take her off the cross, man. This is sickening. Leave the cult. I really really liked CC. But I can’t unsee the immaturity, the constant meltdowns and profanity. The lack of emotional growth. The overreaction to every bad foul call. Officiating is inconsistent and bad across the league. Idolatry makes fools of us all,” Whitlock wrote.
Take her off the cross, man. This is sickening. Leave the cult.
I really really liked CC. But I can’t unsee the immaturity, the constant meltdowns and profanity. The lack of emotional growth. The overreaction to every bad foul call. Officiating is inconsistent and bad across… https://t.co/yOiwfln04x
— Jason Whitlock (@jasonwhitlock) June 19, 2026
Clark’s Fever and Reese’s Dream will square off again Saturday afternoon in Atlanta.
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