Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese recently had a heated encounter during the 20255 season-opener game. While analysts and fans alike are divided in opinion, one former NFL star thinks that the entire drama, which a lot label ass race-motivated, is “necessary.”
In one of the recent editions of “The Facility,” former NFL running back LeSean McCoy acknowledged that while race may play a factor in the heated rivalry between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, the race rivalry is a “needed” factor to heat things up.
“And she’s (Reese) right, regardless of who’s better. I want to touch back on something else, right? Because you guys like talk about the race component, but it’s needed in sports. Let me tell you why. When you look at women’s basketball, right? Would you say that kind of race component helped elevate the game, or these women’s track games? It’s the race component, right?”
“You got a white girl from Iowa, right? She’s doing all type of stuff. She beat all the black girls. She’s this, that, and then you got on other side, Angel Reese, right? The way she might carry herself, the way she plays… It took a elite black girl, an elite white girl, to elevate the game, right?”
“And now it separates. I’m rocking with Angel. I’m walking with Caitlin. And then now on social media, you got these people clashing to watch it. So when it’s a little foul, now everybody’s engaged, man, you see what happened…”
“The race component is needed in sports. Larry Bird elevated basketball the same way.”@CutOnDime25 on how the Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark racial component helped women’s basketball pic.twitter.com/XgDFfRRVWx
— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) May 19, 2025
Former NFL Star Believes Both Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark Elevated the WNBA
In the same episode, McCoy also mentioned how both Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark have the right to assert credit in making the WNBA more popular than it has ever been.
“I think Caitlin might look at it like… ‘I don’t think we on the same class. I don’t want to be compared with her’, right? Because she never, ever gives Angel any credit or any light,” McCoy said. “And then maybe Angel might feel somewhere like, ‘Yo man, like y’all, y’all all want to talk about her elevating the game of women’s basketball, and I have a lot to do with it.’”
The Indiana Fever dominated their season opener against the Chicago Sky, securing a 93-58 victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Caitlin Clark led the way with a triple-double—20 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists—making history as the fastest player to reach three career triple-doubles.
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