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Shaquille O'Neal admitted Angel Reese made him a Caitlin Clark hater
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- Shaquille O'Neal admitted Angel Reese made him a Caitlin Clark hater
Whether you like her or not, it's hard to deny that Caitlin Clark has taken women's basketball by storm.
Even before she officially donned an Indiana Fever jersey and stepped onto the WNBA floor, Clark was already making headlines because of her uncanny ability to put the ball in the basket. While she had already been a prolific scorer ever since her freshman year, her games at Iowa had become must-see viewing by her junior year, and as she continued to shoot the lights out and break record after record, her popularity only grew.
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Clark seemingly had an unlimited range that earned comparisons to some of the sport's greatest shooters, while also having a certain swagger that had become endearing to fans and intolerable to those on the other side.
Why was Shaq a Caitlin Clark hater?
Obviously, not everyone was going to be rooting for Clark.
In fact, even four-time NBA Champion and Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal wasn't riding with the hype, but his reasoning was more out of allegiance, rather than disdain for the player.
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After all, O'Neal is a proud product of Louisiana State University, as is Angel Reese , who everyone has seemingly deemed as Clark's biggest basketball rival.
"I was a hater because you know I'm down with you," O'Neal admitted to Reese when he appeared on her "Unapologetically Angel" podcast back in 2024.
This supposed rivalry stems from the 2023 NCAA Women's National Championship game, in which Reese and LSU defeated Clark and Iowa in an intense, heated contest. Clark again had an impressive outing, and O'Neal couldn't deny her greatness.
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"I was like, 'She's not going to hit that shot.' Then bam!" he recalled.
This happened quite a few more times before O'Neal finally had to admit that Clark was the real deal.
"Like, if I say ten times that you're not going to hit that shot and you hit the shot, that means you're the truth," O'Neal added.
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Clark's star power
Regardless of how he initially felt about her, O'Neal understood exactly why fans were drawn to Clark.
"Why do you think people love Caitlin Clark, besides her skills?" O'Neal asked Reese.
"She can shoot threes from the logo?" Reese responded.
"We've never seen that before. That's my point. You know why I love Steph Curry? Because we've never seen that before. I've never seen that before," O'Neal continued. "I've seen it a little bit in Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, but I've never seen a guy consistently come down...and if you saw Steph in the streets, he ain't got the LeBron muscles, he's not 6'9", 6'10", he looks like perfectly normal office guy, but he's doing stuff that people have never seen before."
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The comparison was pretty spot-on because Stephen Curry started gaining popularity when he started lighting it up from anywhere on the court.
"She's doing stuff that people have never seen before. Never seen anybody do that on a consistent basis. There's a lot of girls in the W that have done it in spurts, but you know that game I'm watching y'all in the Final Four, like damn," O'Neal added.
Obviously, Clark is more than just a confident shooter. As she's shown so far in her WNBA career, she's also a high-level playmaker, and she's positioned herself as a leader for a Fever team that's become one of the more popular squads in the league.
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At the end of the day, Clark is probably the WNBA's most polarizing figure today. The sharpshooting star will always have fans and haters, but her skills and her talent are unquestionable.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jul 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the WNBA section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
