Caitlin Clark And Angel Reese Battle It Out With Half-Court Shots Ahead Of WNBA All-Star Game

The WNBA All-Star game is this weekend, and that's not a sentence I ever thought I'd type, but the league's newest crop of young stars — headlined by the Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky's Angel Reese — have forced my hand, because there is a lot of attention on this game.

That's because bitter rivals Clark and Reese will put their differences aside for an evening when they, along with other WNBA All-Stars, take on the US National team before they jet off to Paris.

So, before the All-Star Game itself gets underway, the WNBA All-Stars were getting in some practice with Reese and Clark having to work together as teammates.

Given how heated it has gotten between the two over the last couple of years, it's pretty wild to see them on the same side for change.

But you can't keep the competitive juices at bay forever, and later on in practice, the two took part in a little half-court shot contest, I guess in case someone needs to heave a buzzer-beater or gets a chance to win a car at halftime.

Reese got the better of that little informal contest, but it did get me thinking about how Clark and Reese are so associated with each other that it's almost hard to talk about one without mentioning the other.

I mean, look at the T-shirts you can snag with both of them.

It reminds me to some extent of when Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin came into the NHL back in 2005. You had two rookies who developed a heated rivalry and that rivalry helped the NHL get out of its brutal post-lockout phase (y'know, back when games were on the Outdoor Life Network. *shudders*).

There are some parallels with the current WNBA. The lack of revenue is well-documented and the way the Clark-Reese rivalry — as well as other star veterans and rookies across the league — is leading to new partnerships that will help the league in the long run, like the recently announced new media deal and a partnership with DraftKings.

At some point, the rivalry between the two might cool down, but for the time being it's hot, and the WNBA is riding it to the bank.