LOUSIANA STATE’S Angela Reese and University of Iowa Caitlin Clark’s are no ordinary basketball players.
According to ESPN.com’s Andre Snellings, “Clark and Reese are two of the best basketball players in the world. They are both coming off historic seasons, and will return to the NCAA next season with the chance to deliver one of the great rivalries in college hoops history.”
And that’s just the start, Snelling added.
“Because by this time next season, both will be getting ready to head into the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) as two of the most promising players the game has seen. And the women’s game, both on and off the court, may never be the same.”
He said: “We may be seeing the birth of a rivalry similar to the one between then Indiana State’s Larry Bird and Michigan State’s Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
“Reese may have won the first round of hopefully many battles against Clark by winning the NCAA women’s championship over the Hawkeyes, 102-85.
“Both women are obviously competitive. Reese is charismatic while Clark is cool, calm, and collected.”
Unfortunately, media played the race card in the issue between these two future WNBA stars with the Daily Mail Australia saying, “‘We see it two different ways…when Caitlin Clark did the John Cena it was considered “swag.” Angela Reese does the same gestured it’s considered “classless.”
“It’s funny how America—society—sees black and white.”
Sharpe conveyed his belief the difference in media and public reaction relates to Reese, and black female student-athletes, not fitting into the typical image usually seen in NCAA women’s sports.
The Maryland transfer spoke to such rhetoric during her postgame press conference.
Reese said “unapologetically me…unapologetically black…it’s so obvious what this is. This is not about anything other than race.”
“One is a celebration and is celebrated. The other is condemned. And why? Only because a black did the exact same gesture that a white female did 48 hours earlier.”
“Trash talk is a part of the game. But white trash talk and black trash talk is viewed entirely different and we know why.’”
FS1 personality and National Football League Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe was referring to Reese copying Clark’s “you can’t see me” diss of WWE superstar John Cena in the dying minutes of the women’s national championship game.
Clark did the gesture in their national semifinal victory over South Carolina.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith also inserted race into the conversation by saying, “We all know that there’s a white-black issue here, because the fact of that matter is when Caitlin did it, people were celebrating it. And they were talking about nothing but her greatness.
“But, the second a sister stepped up and threw it back in her face, now you’ve got half the basketball world saying “Well, you know what, that’s not the classiest thing to do.”
As outstanding as Reese’s performance has been on the court, she also has the potential to change the way the WNBA is marketed as one of the most charismatic superstars their game has seen.
This season, the Bayou Barbie has more name, image and likeness (NIL) deals than any other college basketball player, male or female, and the fifth-most of any NCAA athlete from any sport.”
At the end of the day, let them be.
Is Clark vs Reese or Reese vs Clark a microcosm of the state of race relations in the US that there is a double standard on how white female athletes react and how African American women athletes respond?