INDIANAPOLIS — Brace yourselves, Sky fans.
This comment from Fever megastar Caitlin Clark might sting.
“I still hate our rival,” Clark said Saturday before the much-anticipated season opener between the teams at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Whoa!
Uh, no.
Clark — taking a stab at describing what a true rivalry really is and feels like — was referring not to her feelings toward the Sky but for her rival high school in West Des Moines, Iowa. Clark was on the Dowling Catholic side. Valley High was the other. Her maternal grandfather, Bob Nizzi, coached football at Dowling and taught her well.
“I was taught growing up if we were driving by [Valley] to hold my breath,” Clark said, “because I couldn’t even breathe that air.”
It probably wasn’t quite that unpleasant yet between the hotshot Fever and the hopeful-upstart Sky — until the latest flagrant foul heard ’round the women’s basketball world, this one committed by Clark against Angel Reese in the third quarter of the Fever’s 93-58 victory.
A hard foul by Clark sent Reese sprawling. Reese got up, got in Clark’s ear and got herself teed up, as did the Fever’s Aliyah Boston. The WNBA’s most partisan crowd let Reese have it after that, cascading boos on her for having had the audacity to, let’s see, get raked across her arms on a shot attempt from in close? Sure, sounds about right.
Caitlin Clark received a flagrant foul on this play.
Aliyah Boston and Angel Reese received offsetting technical fouls. pic.twitter.com/jzQYEW92TW
— ESPN (@espn) May 17, 2025
Clark, the league’s No. 1 household name and an expected MVP candidate, hit the Sky with a triple-double of 20 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds. The Fever ran away all second half for their second-largest margin of victory ever, blowing the Sky’s doors off in the first of five meetings between the teams this regular season. Hoosierville rejoiced. Skytown seethed.
A warm-and-fuzzy get-together, it was not.
No, this is getting spicy.
Before the game, Clark dismissed the rivalry talk, telling reporters, “You guys love it, that’s for sure,” as well as, “You can decide that. I’ll leave it up to all of you.”
Afterward, she dismissed the notion she’d done anything wrong.
“Let’s not make it anything that it’s not,” she said. “It was just a good play on the basketball. I’m not sure what the refs saw to upgrade it. That’s up to their discretion after watching [replays]. But it was a ‘take foul’ to put them at the free throw line. …
“I’ve watched a lot of basketball in my life, and that’s exactly what it was. I wasn’t trying to do anything malicious. That’s not the type of player I am. It wasn’t anything like that. And I went for the ball — it’s clear as day in the replay, you watch it. It shouldn’t have been upgraded.”
She might be right. Then again, it’s hard to imagine anything Clark could do around here that would fail to charm her adoring supporters. Clobber an opponent? Berate a lost puppy? Give the halftime performer a televised wedgie at center court? Look, they all had it coming.
Aliyah Boston was shock when she realized she got a tech, but thankfully Caitlin Clark will pay for it 😂 pic.twitter.com/tNemATS6W2
— WNBA Got Game (@wnbagotgame) May 17, 2025
It’s something to behold, this Caitlin Clark spectacle here in Indy. The signs alone were pretty great. A girl, her hair back in a Clark-esque ponytail, held one saying she was 12 and had traveled 1,500 miles to see her hero play. A gray-haired lady, full of vinegar, held one reading, “Caitlin, I’m 85 and ready to play you one-on-one.” And then there was this one, in all caps: “CHICAGO LOVES CAITLIN!”
There were No. 22 Clark jerseys everywhere, on little girls and lumbering fathers and grandfathers alike. There were “Caitlin Fever” T-shirts in every team color.
There’s nobody else with a following like this. Not even close.
It took Clark 29 seconds to score her first points of 2025, a pair of free throws after a drive on Kamilla Cardoso. Clark hit her first three-point attempt of the season, an early pull-up from 28 feet. She beat the halftime buzzer with a three to put the Fever up 45-32.
She’s endlessly special. Even when she’s committing a foul that an opponent — let alone one named Angel Reese — wouldn’t be excused by Fever fans and/or Clark devotees in a million years for committing against good ol’ No. 22.
“Nobody’s going to get anything easy against us,” Fever coach Stephanie White said, rallying to her megastar’s defense. “We’re going to be a tough defensive team. I thought it was a clear play on the ball as well.”
Argue amongst yourselves if you’re so inclined.
But this rivalry just got more unpleasant. Pinch your nose and hold your breath if you can’t handle it.