Angel Reese celebrates LSU’s national championship win over Iowa with a Caitlin Clark-inspired celebration. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

There is bad blood between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. In fact, Reese would like to play alongside the reigning National Player of the Year in the future.

While much has been made about LSU’s national championship win over Iowa, and Reese’s hand-waving gesture toward Clark, both players have downplayed the situation, saying any bad blood only exists in the public’s imagination. Instead, both players are ready to move forward into the upcoming season.

“I love Caitlin; we’ve been competing since we were in AAU,” Reese said Thursday. “It was always fun, always competitive. One day, hopefully, we could even be teammates. She is a great player, shooter, person and teammate.

“The world is always going to have a good girl and a bad girl. I’ll take that I’m going to be the bad guy because I know I’ve grown women’s basketball and inspired people.”

Of course, the decision of which player is “good” and which is “bad” also comes down to which team a fan is pulling for. And Reese knows that.

“Yeah, LSU loves me, but they might not like her. People can think what they think,” Reese said. “Me and Caitlin are cool; we’ve never had any issues. Just knowing I’ve helped grow women’s basketball, and she has, too, that’s all that matters.”