Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark pose for photos before the 2024 WNBA Draft at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Angel Reese has added an interesting layer to her rivalry with Caitlin Clark. During the latest away clash against the Indiana Fever, the Chicago Sky star committed a dangerous flagrant foul on her nemesis, resulting in the basketball community lashing out at her.

Amidst this storm, WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes recently called out this discourse and attempted to de-escalate the whole situation.

Swoopes openly acknowledged the severity of the foul, justifying the call against Reese. However, the 53-year-old admitted that she doesn’t understand the mayhem around the instance.

During the latest Gil’s Arena episode, she subsequently hinted at a potential ulterior motive, stating,

“It’s the clip they wanna post because they are gonna get all these likes and reposts, but that’s a basketball play. She hit her in the head, of course, it should be upgraded to a flagrant 1. Refs looked at it, they upgraded it. Can we keep playing basketball? My thing is, every time Caitlin [Clark] gets fouled, we can’t make it seem like she was assaulted”.

Her comments provided an objective view of the entire situation. After all, during the third quarter of the clash, Reese did seem as though she wanted to block the layup attempt of a driving Clark. However, she unfortunately fumbled her timing, hitting the latter on the head in the process.

It resulted in Resse initially receiving a foul call before it was later upgraded to a flagrant foul upon review.

The severity of Reese’s illegal play was always going to garner a bit of an uproar around the basketball community, especially considering the ‘Caitlin Clark vs the world’ narrative. However, as Swoopes hints, there is certainly a bit of exaggeration at play here as well.

Still, it is also undeniable that there is quite a bit of hostility that Clark has faced so far this season. Yet, the 22-year-old has managed to be a complete professional about everything.

Amidst the chaos, Caitlin Clark maintained her composure

Clark remained unfazed throughout the controversial moment. Soon after the hard foul against her, the Iowa-born refused to read too far into the situation. Instead, she simply prepared to take the free throws to increase her team’s lead.

During the post-game conference, the Fever rookie outlined precisely this. “It’s just a part of basketball. It is what it is. Just trying to make a play on the ball and get the block. It happens,” she told The Athletic’s James Boyd.

A few days earlier, Clark adopted a similar stance while addressing Chennedy Carter’s dubious flagrant foul attempt. On this occasion, she refused to give the Sky star any stick for her endeavors. Rather, she simply hinted at the increased physicality level around the WNBA, mentioning,

“Basketball is competitive. I get it. Sometimes your emotions get the best of you. Happened to me multiple times throughout the course of my career…There’s no grudges, there’s nothing like that to sports. It’s competitive. It’s not gonna be nice all the time. I think the people that play that at the highest level understand that”.

Her statements highlight just how mature Caitlin Clark has been throughout this whole process. Perhaps her fellow athletes will also cut her some slack going forward, especially considering just how many hits she has taken without so much as a complaint. Until this happens, the risk of the former Iowa Hawkeye succumbing to injury only grows by the minute.