WNBA rookie of the year candidate Caitlin Clark said a season-ending injury to Angel Reese is devastating and “never anything you want to see.” Clark reacted to Reese’s situation prior to the Indiana Fever’s 104-100 overtime win Sunday over the Atlanta Dream.
“It’s definitely sad whenever you see anyone go down with an injury, especially people that you came into this league with,” Clark said, via the Indianapolis Star. “You want to see her finish out this year. Obviously, she’s had a historic year, and she’s done some incredible things. For me, getting to play against her, her motor is up there — if not the best in the league. She just doesn’t stop working. I thought she had a tremendous year. I thought she came into the league and really did what she’s done well her entire career as long as I’ve known her.
“It’s really devastating. It’s never anything you want to see from a player.”
Reese wrote on social media last week that her season was prematurely over.
“I’m filled with emotions right now that I have a season-ending injury, but also filled with so much gratitude for what is next. Although this is God’s timing and not mine, I am finally able to give myself a physical and mental break. ‘God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers,'” Reese wrote on “X”.
Clark and Reese tore it up this season as two of the WNBA’s brightest players.
Earlier this season, Clark silenced the “rivalry” discourse between herself and the Chicago Sky star and said she’s had enough of the supposed animosity narrative between the two. Clark scored 17 points and dished out a franchise-record 17 assists during the Fever’s 88-87 setback in June, the second meeting of the season between the former Iowa and LSU women’s basketball standouts.
“I’m pretty sure the only people that view this as a rivalry is all of you,” Clark succinctly told a reporter before the game. “Like, to us it’s just a game of basketball.”
Clark previously said she regrets how her on-court battles with Reese became a distraction during consecutive deep runs to the national championship game, and how it took away from stellar seasons for Lisa Bluder’s teams the past couple of years prior to both players becoming first-round WNBA Draft picks.
The 2022-23 women’s basketball season ended with a heated confrontation between Reese and Clark near the end of the national championship game, the first of consecutive losses by Iowa in the final game. Both players said there was no ill-will prior to this season’s long-awaited rematch showdown in the Elite Eight that drew record viewership, but it remained a major storyline.
