Caitlin Clark – Angel Reese ‘rivalry’ given new twist by an NBA legend: When I played, we had one paper

The Summer Olympic Games are in full swing — and the United States women’s basketball team, a collection of the best players the country has to offer, won their first game against Japan on Monday night. However, debate continues to rage as to whether the WNBA’s star rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese should have been included on the plane to Paris — with some acknowledgement that perhaps Clark was performing well enough to merit selection.

Clark and Reese continue to be compared to one another during their debut seasons, with takes still flying about their “rivalry” that dates back to their showdown in the 2023 NCAA championship game. Though both players have left college behind, intense meetings between Clark’s Indiana Fever and Reese’s Chicago Sky only heightened speculation over the enmity between the two. But one former NBA star — who boasts strong links to Indiana — believes there is another reason as to why Clark and Reese have engendered such strong reactions, both for and against.

Indiana Pacers legend and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Reggie Miller gave an interview to USA Today Sports in which he explained how starkly different basketball coverage is now compared to his heyday in the 1990s. He believes the power of social media has negatively affected Clark and Reese in a way that other trailblazers in women’s basketball — namely Lynette Woodard and Reggie’s sister Cheryl — did not really have to think about.

The problem is with Caitlin and Angel and I’d say the last 15 years is social media,” Miller said. “Cheryl and Lynette Woodard….they never had to face social media the way Clark and Angel Reese and Cam Brink (have had to). Now everyone has their own opinion and their own critique, everyone’s home in their basement and watching games and commenting in real time. You know, in Indiana when I played, we had one paper and one beat writer.

But as the saying goes, pressure makes diamonds, and Clark and Reese are two of the WNBA’s gems. Both rookies were selected to the All-Star Game in Phoenix earlier this month, and they appear ticketed for superstardom. Reese is the WNBA’s leader in offensive rebounds per game and ranks second in total rebounds per night; Clark is the league leader in assists per game, and her dime to Reese during the All-Star Game at Footprint Center immediately went viral

While Reese is very active on social media and seems to revel in the discourse, Clark has taken a markedly different approach to posting online that Miller admires.

“Everyone has an opinion, and sometimes you (have to) just stop the noise, cut off the devices, and everything,” Miller said. “I hear about Caitlin, she does that, which is great. … She’s not actively on it and she doesn’t let a lot of that affect her.”