Caitlin Clark shrugs off hard foul from rival, gets advice from Serena Williams

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Caitlin Clark isn’t worried about a hard foul from rival Angel Reese and she isn’t getting involved in the furor on social media and beyond.

The hoops phenom says she’s simply trying to play the game and ignore the momentous outside noise, hard as that may be.

“It’s just part of basketball,” Clark said after getting smacked in the head during Sunday’s 91-83 win over Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky.

The Indiana Fever rookie has played in 15 games so far, and many opponents have come at her physically.

Reese also said the elbow was not a big deal, adding some players get “a special whistle.”

“I can’t control the refs and they affected the game, obviously, a lot tonight,” Reese said after the loss “Y’all are probably going to play that clip like 20 times before Monday.”

Former USC and NFL quarterback Matt Leinart was roundly ripped for tweeting, “Angel Reese should be suspended. Period.” The foul was upgraded from a common foul to a flagrant-one, but most thought Leinart went too far.

Clark finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and nine assists.

Meanwhile, Clark is getting advice from tennis legend Serena Williams, who said she was “bullied” back in the day when she first started making waves.

“I was bullied,” Williams told media at the premiere of her coming ESPN+ docuseries, In The Arena: Serena Williams. “What I had to go through, people would be cancelled for saying now.

“My position in growing up, as a teenager, I kind of had to be guarded to kind of stay sane. Just (getting) so much press and doing everything I was doing and travelling the globe every year. It was every week. It was a grind.

“I love that she tries to stay grounded,” Williams added of Clark, according to the Associated Press. “She says she doesn’t look at her social (media). I get it. I don’t either. I think it’s so important to just continue to do what she’s doing. No matter what other people do.

“If people are negative, it’s because they can’t do what you do, basically. Hopefully she’ll continue to do what she’s doing.”