Well that didn't take long.
The WNBA knew exactly what it was doing when it pitted Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky in the season-opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon, reigniting a rivalry that goes all the way back to their college days at Iowa and LSU, respectively. And while both Clark and Reese have tried to downplay the tension between the two of them, it didn't take long for the truth to bubble over.
Things had been simmering all day, with Reese objecting to even common fouls from Clark. But it came to a head late in the third, when Clark was whistled for a flagrant foul on Reese ā who immediately got up and wanted to throw hands, even swiping at Clark's ponytail while her back was turned.
Is that a bit of an overreaction to what was, while certainly aggressive, still a basketball play? Sure. But you could just as easily argue that Clark knew exactly what she was doing; she claimed there was "nothing malicious" in it during an in-game interview with ESPN, but there's a reason she lingered with an eye on Reese after the play was over, after all.
Where you come down on the whole altercation probably has as much to do with your priors as anything, and WNBA fans immediately started debating the play on social media.
WNBA fans take sides after Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark get into it in season opener
Again, this debate goes back years now, to when Reese taunted Clark while leading LSU past Iowa in the Final Four. The battle lines are clearly drawn at this point, and most fans likely aren't budging one way or the other. Clark fans claim that this is just a hard foul during a basketball game, and that Reese remains envious that Clark is the better player of the two.
Of course, there are also plenty of Reese fans out there, and they'll (rightfully, it should be noted) point out that Clark put more english on this foul than she needed to. Clark has been criticized in the past for instigating only to walk away as though nothing happened, and many people thought that was the case here.