Some fans take it personally.
Angel Reese, on the latest episode of her “Unapologetically Angel” podcast, recalled one in particular who was not keen on being skipped over in the autograph line.
“Sometimes I be busy, like I can’t sign everything. One man was like, ‘That’s why you’re not Rookie of the Year. And that white girl is better than me,’” Reese said.
The Chicago Sky star was baffled.
“I’m like, ‘Ok, you wanted me to sign your thing and now you don’t like me no more?’ People be so mad,” she said.
That “white girl” is Rookie of the Year award winner Caitlin Clark, one of the few female athletes on the planet who might be getting more autograph requests than Reese.
Reese would know.
“Me and Caitlin have been playing against each other since we were kids,” she told the Wall Street Journal Magazine in a recent story about herself and three-time WNBA MVP A’Ja Wilson.
Reese and Clark’s collegiate rivalry — the former played at LSU, the latter at Iowa — drew national attention and culminated with matchups in consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
LSU defeated Iowa, 102-85, to capture its first national championship in program history in 2023.
A year later, in the Elite Eight, Clark dropped 41 points to end Reese’s season. Iowa advanced to the championship game once again before falling to the South Carolina Gamecocks.
During their inaugural seasons in the WNBA, Clark set the WNBA’s single-season assist record as well as the rookie-scoring record. She also handedly defeated Reese in Rookie of the Year voting.
The first overall pick selected by the Fever, Clark earned 66 of the electorate’s 67 first place votes.
Reese stonewalled her bid for unanimity, claiming the first-place vote from the lone dissenter despite missing the final stretch of the regular season after suffering a wrist injury in early September.
