Clark and the Indiana Fever crushed Reese and the Chicago Sky, 93-58, in a game that was never really in doubt and lacked real drama.
Except, that is, for one particularly volatile moment in the third quarter when Clark, angered by the fact that officials did not call a foul on Reese for blatantly shoving her teammate, Aliyah Boston, ran over and fouled Reese as she was driving to the basket.
Reese immediately got to her feet and got in Clark’s face.
On Monday’s edition of First Take, ESPN’s Molly Qerim asked Stephen A. Smith whether the confrontation had grabbed headlines for racial reasons.
“It’s not about Black and White – it’s about that White player and that Black player,” Smith said of Clark and Reese. “Why? Because of the history they had before they came to the WNBA. If Angel Reese was never in Caitlin Clark’s face taunting her the way that she did, mimicking what Caitlin Clark was doing to numerous opponents in route to the Final Four and then LSU and Angel Reese busted their you know what at that particular moment in time and Angel Reese was in her face chirping at her the way that she did, it would have never gotten to this point.
“I have never deemed that to be a bad thing. I love that kind of confrontation. I love that kind of heat. But there are White folks in America had a problem with Angel Reese coming at ‘The Chosen One,’ Caitlin Clark, that way. And because of that, they’ve acted with a level of vitriol. How do we know that? Because Angel Reese came back to college following year and one of the things that reduced her to tears was the vitriol that she was receiving from around the country because were hating on her because of her elevated popularity and the fact that she had gone at Caitlin Clark that way.
“Now, we come to the WNBA. No fault of Caitlin’s at all. But in the end, because of her greatness and because people were resistant to accepting the way I have articulated on many occasions, you have people using that as an excuse to throw vitriol at other people. In the end, here’s what I say: that’s what’s contributed to Angel Reese becoming a household name, along with the fact that she’s a rebounding demon … but that’s elevated her level of popularity.”
Smith compared the rivalry between Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird, which thrilled NBA fans, primarily, in the pre-Jordan years.
“What I would say all of y’all is this … no matter how great Michael Jordan was obviously, it started with Bird vs. Magic. Yeah, you can talk about Showtime vs. Boston, but that White superstar losing in that national championship game to that dude called Magic at Michigan State when (Bird) was at Indiana State and him coming into the NBA,” he said. “They constantly made the Finals, and they owned most of the 80s in terms of the two teams, respectively. The bottom line is, it contributed to elevate the popularity.
“So, Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, embrace this. It’s OK, because all y’all doing is competing.”
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