Angel Reese flagrant foul on Caitlin Clark Photo Credit: CBS
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Much of the talk around Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has been about how fellow WNBA players have treated her in her rookie season. And after Sunday’s game between the Fever and the Chicago Sky, this talking point has only grown steam.

The last time that these two teams played, we of course had the highly discussed hard foul from Chennedy Carter on Clark, which largely sparked the conversation that other WNBA players may be jealous of all of the popularity Clark has.

In Sunday’s game, we had a similar moment when Angel Reese attempted to block Clark’s shot, instead slapping her in the face. The foul was ultimately looked at and deemed enough to be upgraded to a Flagrant 1 foul.

Naturally, many media members offered their opinions on the foul. And as you would expect, many different narratives were formed.

“Her “teammates” are pathetic,” tweeted ESPN’s John Buccigross.

“Once again, anything involving Caitlin gets overanalyzed and taken to the next level,” tweeted The Athletic’s Jim Trotter. “Both things can be true here. Reese was attempting to make a basketball play, and the contact to the head was deserving of flagrant 1 status.”

“Angel Reese should be suspended,” tweeted Fox College Football analyst Matt Leinart. “Period. Not good for the game.”

“Chicago Sky doing Chicago Sky stuff,” tweeted Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy.

As you can tell from these reactions, takes are flying left and right about this foul from Reese after this game.

It did look like Reese tried to make a play on the ball. But simply failed to reach it, instead hitting Clark in the back of the head, with her hand and then wrapping around to the front of her face.

But naturally, given the discourse around Clark and Reese’s relationship already, there will be plenty of people who see this as another personalized attack against the former Iowa Hawkeyes star.

It doesn’t help matters that Reese then went to her postgame press conference and complained about how her team didn’t get enough foul calls from the officials, saying that “some people got a special whistle”.

“On the inside, I think we were playing really hard. I think we went up really strong a lot of times and we didn’t get a lot of calls. Going back and looking at the film, there were a lot of calls that weren’t made. I guess some people got a special whistle.”

This comment is pretty obviously about Clark, who has gained the reputation of receiving special treatment from officials and perhaps the league as a whole.

But if you are fouling Clark the way Reese did in this game, are you really in a position to argue about fouls that were called?

There’s a very fair argument that Reese could have and potentially even should have been ejected for that foul. So officiating very much goes both ways.

Regardless, this foul will likely be a huge talking point moving forward, especially considering how polarizing both Clark and Reese are as figures in the WNBA.

[CBS Sports]

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley