When Paige Bueckers sat for an interview with FIBA ahead of the World Cup, she mentioned how every player on Team USA’s roster was on the same team. While their WNBA rivalries had their place, winning USA’s fifth World Cup took priority. Yet on the night when Team USA extended their historic WC streak by beating France 9-79, one reporter still had Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s rivalry in mind, a debate Reese had cleared the air on two years ago.

“Yeah, I think it’s just competition. It’s been competition since college, being able to play against Caitlin. I’ve been playing against Caitlin since we were probably in eighth or ninth grade.”

“…I don’t think it’s just her fans. I think it’s fans in general. And I mean, people don’t realise that at the end of the day, we’re human. You guys watch us, and it’s just basketball. I promise you, it’s just basketball. I don’t have any hard feelings towards her. She doesn’t have any hard feelings towards me. But yeah, it gets crazy sometimes.”

Reese said in a November 28, 2024 interview with Speedy Morman, a video of which BrickCenter reshared on Wednesday. In fact, the Atlanta Dream star even explained she would be ok even if fans preferred Clark more.

“Obviously social media is going to put two women against each other. And I think it’s just been something that is negative, but also positive. I think it shines a light on women’s basketball. So I’ll take that of being able to be the person that gets the hate. But I know that at the end of the day, I’m growing women’s basketball and helping women’s basketball.”

Interestingly, Caitlin Clark holds a very similar view toward the rivalry fans, and even the media can’t seem to get enough of. CC had also addressed it in an interview when she won TIME’s 2024 Athlete of the Year award.

“I don’t get that at all. We’re not best friends, by any means, but we’re very respectful of one another. Yes, we have had tremendous battles. But when have I ever guarded her? And when has she guarded me?” Clark said.

The fact that the pair could set aside their WNBA rivalry for Team USA became clear during the recently concluded World Cup. Throughout the tournament, the pair showed genuine and consistent on-court connection.

Clark assisted Reese’s interior scoring on multiple occasions, and Reese actively looked for Clark on transition plays. In fact, seven of Clark’s 30 assists with Team USA in Berlin were for Reese. The duo linked up for some impressive sequences, with those clips going viral as fans couldn’t get enough of the pair working together.

That enthusiasm wasn’t just limited to the fans. In the gold-medal game against France on September 13, the Indiana Fever star hit a buzzer-beating, momentum-changing three-pointer that cut down France’s lead to just two points ahead of halftime.

While everyone, including Paige Bueckers and her Fever coach Stephanie White, cheered, Reese seemed to he most hyped about Clark hitting the three and was the first one to step out and congratulate her teammate.

So when the reporter asked Clark whether she and Reese had become friends following the gold medal win, the 2024 rookie of the year shut it down immediately.

“We’ve always been friends. Don’t try to do that.”

Later, while once again crossing the media availability area, she turned back to the reporter and said:

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

Of course, rivalry is part of sport, and both fans and media will always look for compelling narratives to frame it around. However, everything since 2024 has pointed to he fact that the rivalry is all about basketball.