Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale. Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

WNBA guard sheds light on Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese rivalry

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated Aug 28, 2024 4:46 PM ET

The sports world really does love its rivalries. But Arike Ogunbowale isn't buying the big WNBA standoff that is being showcased this season.

The Dallas Wings guard was candid when discussing the rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese in a USA Today interview posted to Yahoo! Sports this week. The antagonism between the rookies has been brewing since before they turned pro this year, but according to Ogunbowale, the beef is fabricated by the press.

"I do think the Angel–Caitlin thing is funny," she said with a chuckle. "They're two totally different positions, and the media tries to make them be like competition. It's like, that's a guard and that's a post. So, at the end of the day, they never even guarded each other. It's not really a 'rivalry,' but it's just funny how people hype it up."

Arike Ogunbowale spoke on the Angel Reese vs. Caitlin Clark "rivalry" pic.twitter.com/jCFgcbecXg
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) August 28, 2024

"I know both of them and they both have respect for each other, so it's mostly the media," Ogunbowale continued.

Ogunbowale's comments on that mutual respect are certainly interesting the shade that has been thrown on the court since Clark and Reese faced each other in the 2023 NCAA women's championship.

The competition between Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes and Reese's LSU Tigers was reignited in the 2024 Elite Eight and has continued into WNBA games this summer between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky.

Reese even made some postgame comments after one Fever-Sky matchup insinuating that Clark got special treatment on a foul call.

The Fever and Sky have played each other three times this season, with the final faceoff taking place on Friday. According to Sports Illustrated, the latter two games had the highest viewership numbers for a WNBA regular-season matchup in over 20 years.

Whether or not the rivalry is real, it's certainly getting more fans to tune in.

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