The WNBA witnessed another chapter in the ongoing Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark saga, but one former ESPN co-host provided a different perspective on the effects of the rivalry.
Bomani Jones said the Clark-Reese rivalry -- rekindled after Clark committed a late-game flagrant foul on Reese in the Indiana Fever's 93-58 season-opening win on May 17 -- is no longer fun.
""Um, like there's a lot of stuff that's going on and it doesn't feel like anybody's having a good time, like the league got bigger, which is what so many fans of the league wanted and I told them I don't think you want us to show up," he said on the May 19 episode of "The Right Time With Bomani Jones." "Well we're here and you're not having fun, the new people have come they're not really having fun either," he said.
Clark finished the game with her third triple-double of her young career, but it was an afterthought after her foul on Reese, which was upgraded to a flagrant one.
Jones, who formerly co-hosted Highly Questionable, went on a rant about the overwhelming aspects of this rivalry.
"Aliyah Boston broke up the little tussle and Ryan, it's like world War II happened," said Jones."We're back, we're back at the exact same place we were all last July."
During their press conferences, Reese and Clark downplayed the foul and said it was a basketball play. While both players put Saturday's game behind them, the rest of the world did not.
Reese and Clark have been playing against each other since their freshman year of college. The rivalry became mainstream at the 2023 National Championship game, which featured LSU and Iowa.
Analyst and critics have compared this rivalry to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Bird and Johnson were catalyst in the holistic rebirth of the NBA.
Despite Reese being on the receiving end of the foul, she still received an overwhelming amount of negativity. The WNBA stated on Sunday that they are going to investigate the claim of "hateful fan comments" that were directed to the Chicago Sky forward, per ESPN.
Jones further explained why the Bird and Johnson comparison isn't fair to Clark and Reese.
"There is a Magic, Bird element obviously to these two players, the problem is Angel Reese ain't no Magic Johnson, good player, not Magic Johnson," said Jones. "These are not players of the same stature, they're not it and that's not an insult to Angel Reese."
Clark is a generational talent and the league is marketing around her and Reese. On the flip side, does the marketing now include the WNBA as a whole with the Iowa products mellow personality?
"The pushback against Clark from some sides would mellow a little bit as like they're showing more personality from her, like we're getting more stuff online with her interacting with her teammates," said Jones.
"I've always said a big thing that was going to happen with her that nobody was really going to talk about was that clearly she'd never really hung out with any black people before and now this has changed because she's now in the WNBA and not playing for the University of Iowa," he said.
The Fever and Sky will face off four more times this season. Three out of the four matchups will be on primetime networks.
Indiana will next match up will be at 8 p.m. Eastern time May 20 against the Atlanta Dream at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.