Angel Reese Blames Iconic Caitlin Clark Trash Talk Reaction on Double Standard
The moment when Chicago Sky superstar (who was then an LSU Tiger) Angel Reese taunted Indiana Fever icon (and former Iowa Hawkeye) Caitlin Clark by pointing to her ring finger in the waning seconds of the 2023 NCAA National Championship game changed the sport of women's basketball forever.
Cracking up at Angel Reese catchin Tweet heat for the “Imma get a ring” gesture to Caitlin Clark.
— Bonnie Bernstein (@BonnieBernstein) April 2, 2023
People, please. You giving any dudes grief for this playground stuff among the fiercest of competitors?
Nah. Didn’t think so. #ChampGameRealTalk pic.twitter.com/mncFOTcMY2
Not only did this taunt spark endless debate and attract a ton of attention towards NCAA basketball, but it also catapulted both Clark and Reese — each of whom also became top-tier talents on the court — into a new stratosphere of superstardom.
Reese has made it clear multiple times that she doesn't hold any ill sentiment toward Clark and that the taunt was harmless trash talk. In a video interview with the Wall Street Journal that was part of an October 16 article featuring Reese and Aces superstar A'ja Wilson, Reese got honest about the root of the reaction to her trash talk.
"Probably my national championship game, that changed my life," Reese said when asked about the most important game of her life. "Seeing 9.9 million people watch that game, from a hand gesture... to everything that happened changed women's basketball forever. My life literally completely just changed from that game."
When asked about the hand gesture toward Clark, Reese said, "Me and Caitlin have been playing together since we were kids. It's just a full-circle moment of how women are viewed when it comes to trash-talking.
"It's okay in men's sports, so we're going to normalize that in women's sports as well," Reese continued. "So it's just super competitive. I think [Clark and I] are two great competitors. We brought a lot of fans to this league... and one day hopefully we can be teammates.
She and Clark becoming teammates might turn the entire sport upside down.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.