Stephen A. Smith Befuddled by Angel Reese's Branding Compared to Caitlin Clark
Chicago Sky superstar Angel Reese received a lot of pushback after posting photos and videos of her in a provocative dress on New Year's Eve to her Instagram.
🔥🚨DEVELOPING: WNBA Star Angel Reese is facing backlash for uploading this video of her New Years Eve outfit. Many of her fans have been urging Reese ‘to put on more clothes’ and it appears Reese responded by celebrating in an extremely clad outfit. pic.twitter.com/nKihi6PXQa
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) January 1, 2025
In fact, Reese ended up deactivating her Instagram on New Year's Day (although it has since been reactivated on January 8) and many believe the reason was because of the negative comments she received from these posts.
Sports media juggernaut Stephen A. Smith offered his sentiment on this during a January 7 episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show and ended up comparing Reese to her peer and presumed rival Caitlin Clark.
"What's not debatable is the fact that Caitlin Clark has handled her branding extremely well," Smith said. "Whereas with Angel Reese, sometimes you find yourself scratching your head and wondering what the hell she's doing, like that [New Year's Eve] photo right there.
"Listen... [Reese] is a beautiful young lady. And there's a lot of beautiful young ladies in the WNBA. But when you do that, you can't come down the line and complain about being objectified later on," Smith added. "It's not going to work with people. And whether it's right or wrong, it's not going to work.
"And when you do stuff like [the New Year's Eve post], and you're drawing attention to yourself because of that, that can be problematic for you," Smith added.
"Especially when the comparison is going to be drawn to Caitlin Clark, who isn't doing such things. That might not be fair, I'm not saying it is. And you certainly have the right to dress how you want, and to do what you want, and to live your life. But people have a right to have their opinions about what you put on display.
"And if they don't like it, and if they believe it's not the right thing for you to be doing when you talk about building your brand, I don't know how you can argue that. That's my struggle," Smith concluded.
Stephen A. Smith on why Angel Reese’s branding has him “wondering what the hell she’s doing” in comparison to Caitlin Clark
— Grant Young (@GrvntYoung) January 8, 2025
(via The Stephen A. Smith Show) pic.twitter.com/Wwa5kDUopr
It will be interesting to see how Smith's sentiment is received by the women's basketball community.
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.