NBA stars have been talking about Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark for years

In a recent media availability session, Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese credited herself for much of the WNBA’s growth, saying women’s basketball truly began getting attention after LSU’s National Championship game victory over Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes.

“It all started from the National Championship game,” Reese said. “I’ve been dealing this with two years now. … Yeah, negative things have probably been said about me, but honestly, I’ll take that. Because look where women’s basketball is. People are talking about women’s basketball that you never would think would be. People are pulling up to games. We have celebrities coming to games, sold out arenas.” 

These comments sparked the latest WNBA controversy, as many feel strongly about what Reese said. During a segment of Speak on FS1, show host Joy Taylor said Reese is correct, adding that nobody was talking about Caitlin Clark until that game.

“She’s not wrong,” Taylor said of Reese’s comments. “… How did we get here? What she just said, the National Championship game. We were not talking about Caitlin Clark before Angel Reese walked up to her, did this (you can’t see me gesture), and pointed to the ring. This is not my opinion, I lived it, I watched it, it was recorded, it was broadcasted live. We were not talking about Caitlin Clark before that moment.”

As a rebuttal to this assertion from Taylor, many have resurfaced comments from NBA stars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant, who have been talking about Clark for several years. While Taylor may not have been talking about Clark until that LSU vs. Iowa game, many in the basketball world were:

While this screenshot shows comments from James, Durant, and Trae Young in 2022, Durant was talking about Clark even before then, saying in 2021 that the Iowa star already belonged in the WNBA.

Needless to say, Clark has been getting attention for years, even if not to the degree she is being discussed now.