The Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese rivalry isn’t new. The popular media has projected both of them against each other whenever they have battled after the 2023 NCAA Championship Finale. And coming into the W, their rivalry has got the league the much-deserved attention. However, in times where healthy competition sometimes turns into hate and drives audience footfalls, the USA metropolitan city of New York has put aside their rivalry, thanks to capitalism.

“People are a little familiar with the players that they are watching. But yeah a lot of it is Caitlin Clark. Just what she’s able to do and Angel Reese, what she’s able to do,” a journalist from the Washington Post podcast stated. Her statements were agreed upon by one of her colleagues who shed light on the fact that “Angel Reese is on billboards in Times Square when she’s still in school. That’s crazy.” Notably, Clark has also achieved the same feat for the sporting giant Nike.

The year is 2023. The sporting giant Reebok is looking to make a comeback into the industry after a rough decade. Chalking down their plans, they sign the NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal as the President of Basketball Operations. And what does Uncle Shaq do? He signs Reese in a shapeshifting industry where the attempt is to put female athletes in the spotlight. Once the deal is confirmed, Reebok rolls out a poster for Reese in Times Square, New York, to announce their game-changing partnership. Cut to 2024, when Clark achieves the same feat.

Clark was going strong into the NCAA 2023-24 season on her way to breaking Pete Maravich’s all-time leading scorer record in men’s and women’s basketball. When the No. 22 finally surpassed ‘Pistol Pete’ with a free throw in a 93-83 win against Ohio State in March, Nike commemorated the feat by placing a billboard on Times Square. It had the message “This was never a long shot,” with Caitlin Clark shooting her iconic Logo-3. Thus, both the athletes, despite being rivals, have been accepted by ‘the Big Apple’ in their complete glory. And seriously, it’s crazy. However, irrespective of being called fierce rivals, Clark and Reese don’t label themselves as one.

Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark deny rivalry claims

“It is you people who make it so.” Caitlin Clark’s words echoed through the presser as she pointed fingers at the media for labeling her competitiveness with Angel Reese as a rivalry. The alleged enmity between Clark and Reese started in the 2023 NCAA Championship Finale when Reese gestured John Cena’s ‘You Can’t See Me’ antic against the point guard, who had used the same during her March Madness run against the Louisville Cardinals.

Furthermore, Reese also pointed to her ring finger, stating that she deserved to win the Championship title. Since then, the media caught onto their feud and has been peddling it, sometimes in favor of the league. However, Clark doesn’t feel that she has a beef with the Chicago Sky rookie.

“If it’s gonna help move the game forward, absolutely,” Clark had stated while dismissing claims of any rivalry between them before expressing that she would accept the claims as true “If it’s going to help move the game forward.” Similarly, Reese during one of her episodes of ‘Unapologetically Angel’ came to the fore to opine that “there’s never been beef,” as the two stars have been up against each other since high school. Praising Clark for her competitive spirit, Reese also admitted that the Championship 2023 Finale changed her life “And knowing my five fingers and my other finger pointing at my hand could literally have changed my life for, like, forever is crazy.”

Perhaps, now that New York has set an example of how two athletes can excel together and share the same spot, maybe even their fans will put a rest to their alleged beef. Instead, they will help both athletes bask together in the same glory.