The 2025 WNBA season is in full swing, and you know what that means. It’s WNBA narrative season as well!
There was hope that cooler heads might prevail this year and we could have rational conversations about Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and the rest of the WNBA, but that hope died as soon as Clark’s flagrant foul launched a thousand takes.
Since then, not only have we seen the return of bad narratives from the usual suspects, but we’ve already got a clubhouse leader for the dumbest sports media feud of the year. At least the ratings remain red-hot.
Jemele Hill posted a clip from the latest episode of her Spolitics podcast on Monday about the entire situation. She started by breaking down the Ryan Clark-Robert Griffin III fracas and getting to the heart of why the presumed Clark-Reese rivalry sparks such responses.
“RGIII’s opinion wasn’t a sports take. He doesn’t know Angel Reese. He doesn’t talk to Angel Reese. He doesn’t know Caitlin Clark either,” said Hill. “His observation that Angel Reese hates Caitlin Clark isn’t about sports, but about something he senses is more personal. Now, what Ryan was pointing out was a lack of self-awareness. Now, I certainly don’t care how many white wives RGIII has had. Who he loves is his business. But this is ultimately a conversation about cultural competency.
“Angel Reese’s very existence rubs a lot of people the wrong way. No one knows for sure how she feels about Caitlin Clark, but what we do know from Angel Reese’s own public comments is that she feels a way that she isn’t given more credit for how she also has added to the popularity of women’s basketball in this moment.”
Hill then played a clip of Reese explaining why she’s willing to be the “bad guy” if it means that’s what it takes to get credit for the rise of women’s basketball that we’re experiencing.
“Those comments from Angel Reese about wanting some credit for helping to grow the game came from a very real place for Black women, for Black people overall,” Hill said. “Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and Kelsey Plum have all admitted that as white stars, they are operating with a certain amount of privilege. As talented as they are, they each have acknowledged that they receive more fanfare and opportunities because of the way whiteness works.
“Angel Reese, A’ja Wilson, and other Black stars in the WNBA know they have to work a little bit harder to receive the credit and attention they deserve. They know the marketing push and dollar sometimes won’t be the same for them. They know their actions will be judged differently, and they are under a different type of scrutiny. For that reason, a lot of Black women identify with Angel Reese. She is so unapologetic about who she is. I mean, she is out here living her best life at the Met Gala, playing with passion and enthusiasm, and she speaks her mind. People resent that, especially coming from a young Black woman. Now, there are so many examples of outspoken and unapologetic athletes being portrayed negatively by the media, especially if they’re Black.”
Hill then references several instances where elite men’s basketball players were reported to have intense rivalries and even harbor hatred for one another. However, it was always positioned as part of being a competitive athlete. Meanwhile, Reese and Clark don’t get the same luxury as some people graft agendas and narratives onto what they say and do.
“For some reason, when it comes to Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, we simply refuse to view their competitiveness through that same lens,” said Hill. “Maybe they hate each other, maybe they don’t. But I want us to graduate to a point where whether or not they like each other is utterly irrelevant. Angel Reese is not the villain in Caitlin Clark’s story, no more than Caitlin Clark is the savior in hers. Every interaction between them is not a thinkpiece. If there are hard fouls, rough language, and things get spicy, so be it. If you have no problem when male athletes compete hard against one another or expose their pettiness, do us all a favor and apply that same energy so we can actually enjoy this WNBA season.”