The Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark discourse has brought out the worst in us.
It’s the kind of sports media cycle you see coming a mile away, and you’re still powerless to stop it. One hard foul, a bit of contact, a competitive moment, and suddenly, the conversation spirals into a referendum on character, intent, or something it was never about in the first place.
After Clark got hit with a flagrant for shoving Reese in the back, Robert Griffin III wasted no time suggesting that the Chicago Sky forward’s reaction came from some deep-rooted jealousy and hatred Reese allegedly had toward Clark.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The WNBA is now investigating racially charged comments allegedly directed at Reese after Clark fouled her during the Indiana Fever’s 93-58 win over the Chicago Sky. Dave Portnoy, who was at the game, criticized the league for “lending credence” to those allegations. Meanwhile, Stephen A. Smith said on Monday’s First Take that the supposed hate speech didn’t bother him much.
Monica McNutt and Chiney Ogwumike brought some sanity to the conversation on Get Up.
“I think folks that truly love the game of basketball need to be mindful,” McNutt said. “You need to respect the humanity of these women, whether you’re Team Clark or Team Reese, although you can certainly be both. The aftermath, the fact that the WNBA has to put out a statement because of racist comments and unsafe conditions for Angel Reese, I just want people to be mindful that whether you like it or not, any time something happens with the two of them, one is automatically put as a victim, and one is automatically put as someone who needs to be saved.
“When, in reality, both are excellent competitors. They both said this was a basketball play. Now, let’s be honest. If this was the other way around, oh lord, you can only imagine how the conversation would’ve gone.”
“I absolutely agree. And when you think about these circumstances in this day and age that we’re in, a lot of people project their own subjective feelings on these ladies,” Ogwumike said. “As people that have gotten to know them, they just want to compete at the highest levels. Once the play was over, they were on to the next.
“But I’ll lastly say this: when it comes to the racism and the hateful rhetoric and the statement that the WNBA is saying, I think it’s important because at the end of the day, if you’re truly a basketball fan, you would understand and agree that we have no space for those types of comments. And also not putting more gasoline on the fire in a circumstance where we’re here to appreciate the beautiful basketball. That’s all Cailtin and Angel want you to do. Why not just continue on at it?”
Every time something happens between Clark and Reese, it becomes binary. One’s the victim, the other’s the villain.
It’s predictable and exhausting.
But Ogwumike points out a layer that gets overlooked: Most of the chaos is coming from the outside.
These two just want to compete, move on, and play ball. The problem isn’t on the court. It’s everything around it. And the fact that the WNBA decided to step in and address alleged hate speech proves just how toxic that noise has become.