The Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese rivalry has been a central W.N.B.A. story line this season. The two most-watched games have been between Clark’s Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky, Reese’s team, even though both players are rookies. And they’ve received a tremendous amount of media coverage and discussion on sports media shows.

Much of that conversation has focused on whether the W.N.B.A. has been sufficiently grateful for the attention Clark has brought to the league or if Reese and others are jealous of her blossoming stardom. The attention echoes the Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson rivalry that helped spur the growth of the N.B.A. in the 1980s.

The clashing of great players is essential to sports and has defined the men’s game for decades: Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O’Neal vs. Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan vs. Isiah Thomas, LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry. Rivalries can often involve a bit of class, region and race. Nonetheless, they usually come down to the one-on-one competition itself.

This is what makes the Clark-Reese comparisons so odd. Many basketball rivals play the same position or at least inhabit similar parts of the court. To oversimplify, post players who stay closer to the basket are usually compared with other post players. Those who run the offense are often pitted against others who do the same. Shaq and Hakeem, for example, were both centers. But Clark plays a perimeter game, and Reese plays in the post. Clark at last count had made 120 3-pointers. Reese had attempted 16, and she had 446 rebounds to Clark’s 222.

And so instead of a conversation about the differences in their play, race has come to dominate the chatter surrounding these women. Some of the talk has been both racist and sexist, trading in stereotypes about Black and white women. Reese has often been cast as the angry Black woman while Clark has been portrayed as the innocent victim needing protection.

It can be traced back to the 2023 N.C.A.A. tournament. Clark’s brashness had become the subject of some conversation. It reached an even higher level in the semifinals when Clark, playing for the University of Iowa, made a dismissive gesture toward the University of South Carolina’s Raven Johnson, not bothering to guard her at the three-point line. In the final game, in which Louisiana State University beat Iowa, Reese celebrated at Clark’s expense — waving her hand in front of her face — a move that Clark herself has made, perhaps to mean that her opponent couldn’t see her. Reese also pointed to her ring finger, seemingly signifying the championship ring coming to her.

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