Forget about a rivalry, just enjoy the show
All the arguing about Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese blurs the bigger picture of a splendid sports moment
Back in the 1990s, I spent a lot of time in England because my then-boyfriend was a Brit. Of course I got used to things like saying “Sorry” instead of “Excuse me” and first looking right when I crossed the street, but there was one thing I never could wrap my head around:
The “rivalry” between Oasis and Blur.
I’ve been thinking about this a bit since Oasis, a band insanely popular in Britain and mildly popular in the U.S., announced recently they were getting back together for a tour.
Two beloved bands, each with their own rabid following. Really different sorts of music but vying for the top of the charts nonetheless. Beating out each other for music awards even though that kind of thing isn’t really a competition. And then, if all that weren’t enough, when I was there in August 1995, they each released a record on the same day in a moment known as the Battle of Britpop. It was a media-made madness that seemed as huge as a Michigan-Ohio State football game or an Ali-Frazier fight.
In the Battle of Britpop, it seemed that everyone had to take a side. While I had my preference*, I also thought, “Give it a rest, people. Why not enjoy both of them? Why do we have to pick a side?”
Which brings us to the WNBA Rookie of the Year “competition.”
Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are putting up magnificent numbers in their first year in the league — numbers that would be fantastic even if they weren’t rookies. Clark averages 18.7 points and leads the WNBA with 8.4 assists (as of Tuesday), while Reese averages 13.3 points and leads the league with 13.2 rebounds.
Last Friday when the Fever played the Sky, Clark’s performance of 31 points and 12 assists seemingly shut the door on what the announcers were calling the Rookie of the Year “battle.” And then on Sunday, as Clark scored 28 points and had 12 assists against Dallas, Reese nabbed 19 rebounds against Minnesota to set a WNBA season record for rebounds. Not a rookie record, a WNBA record.
Beyond who might or might not be Rookie of the Year, is there a real rivalry between Clark and Reese as we’ve been led to believe since the infamous “you can’t see me” moment in the 2023 NCAA title game? Who knows? And really, who cares?
Honestly, I don’t. All along I haven’t weighed in on this insanity, which carries with it so many other cultural aspects and ill-informed opinions. Maybe that’s being intellectually lazy on my part, but this column is a side gig and who needs the grief?
Besides, I haven’t weighed in because I happen to like both players.
To express that is kind of like being a Packers fan, as I am, who expresses sympathy for how pathetic the Bears have been and then being smacked down by Packers fans who just want the Bears to suffer and die. Trust me, I speak from experience.
I’m just so weary of division and anger in pretty much everything. Our politics are but a microcosm of the way everyone is required to pick a side and dig in, even about the most mundane and ridiculous things. You like pineapple on your pizza? You have no taste and you are an idiot and you should die. You didn’t see blue in that dress on the internet that one time? You are blind and stupid and you should die. And God help you if you want to bake a rainbow cake.
To say I enjoy watching both players and leaving it at that can come off, I know, as extremely naïve – like first lady Jill Biden wanting to invite both LSU and Iowa to the White House last year.
But fellow basketball fans: We are living in an amazing moment. Besides the great players who have been around for years, there are new players doing unprecedented things. Why spend time arguing when you could just sit back and be amazed?
I didn’t hesitate to throw out opinions to my friends, though. I predicted Clark would make her WNBA mark with her passing more than her logo 3s (woo hoo, me!). I predicted Reese wouldn’t make a huge impact right away because I didn’t see her rebounding carrying over as well into the physical WNBA (woo doggie I missed that one).
Passing, rebounding … those skills just don’t match up. The way you can’t compare the numbers of, say, a rookie star pitcher and a rookie star slugger, it’s impossible to compare Clark and Reese as basketball players. They don’t do the same thing and apart from both oozing fearlessness, they appear to be very different people. (Which is often where and why the fans dig in.)
Reese isn’t shy about saying what she thinks, nor about showing immense vulnerability. Clark in public often speaks matter-of-factly and in careful platitudes. Reese loves fashion and announced her WNBA decision in Vogue. Clark strides through the WNBA pregame in her “tunnel fits” but to me sometimes looks as if she’d rather be walking around Iowa City’s Ped Mall wearing jammie pants and a hoodie.
I don’t want to be exhausted by this, I want to enjoy it. Maybe, in the words of Oasis, we can just appreciate these Champagne supernovas in the sky. Or we can listen to the pleadings of Blur to just come on, come on, come on and get through it.
And to finish off that Blur lyric, it tells us that love’s the greatest thing. I’m loving this moment, and it, indeed, is the greatest thing.
*Between the two, my preference was Blur. However, with Britpop as a whole, my favorite band was Pulp. This is like not being terribly invested in a Clark-Reese “rivalry” because your favorite rookie is Rickea Jackson of the Los Angeles Sparks.
Jane Burns is a former sports and features writer for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications and websites. She’s a past winner of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Mel Greenberg Award for her coverage of women’s basketball. Over the course of her career she’s covered pretty much everything, which is why her as-yet-to-be-written memoir will be called “Cheese and Basketball: Stories From a Reporter Who Has Covered Everything.” And if this post doesn’t make it perfectly clear, she is also a big music geek.
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Angel Reese launched a podcast today and weighs in on this. She also offers some insights on how she gets treated - spoiler alert: horribly - by the internet mobs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Y-TdlhUBrzw&feature=youtu.be
Solid take. It feels like some of these people never got out of 8th grade. It ought to be possible to support your athlete without torturing others.