A few seconds of taunting spiraled into a wider conversation that has now come down to race.
As the final seconds of LSU’s NCAA women’s championship win over Iowa were ticking away on Sunday, LSU star Angel Reese focused on Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, mocking Clark with wrestling star John Cena’s “You can’t see me” hand motion — something Clark had done earlier in the tournament.
Reese then made a show of pointing to her ring finger to indicate that she would be wearing a national championship ring.
That launched a round of criticism aimed at an unapologetic Reese for trashing the concept of sportsmanship. NBA star LeBron James waded into the controversy, taking the side of Reese, who is black.
“FACTS!!!! Love to see it,” he wrote, retweeting a video of a movie scene in which actress Angela Bassett stalks away from a fire she started.
James added a second post noting that some had made the game a comparison of races and cultures and giving more support to Reese.
“Ayyyeee We A Set This Off!”
Sports commentator Jay Williams said criticism of Reese was based on race.
“We have a certain section of people that then want to come out and call out people like Angel Reese, who is 20 years old,” Williams said.
“Now think about this, the narrative that’s been following this team all year long has been that they’re ghetto, they’re thugs,” he said.
“Today I’m pissed off because instead of congratulating and celebrating LSU, we’re talking about elements of race and double standards,” he said.
Williams’s comments were in line with some posts James and others had tweeted.
“When Caitlin Clark is doing all this, she has swag, she’s a competitor … but when Angel Reese does it. Was it maybe a tad bit excessive, could she have been called [for a technical foul]? Sure, if the refs wanted to call her for a ‘T’ at the end of the game for trash-talking because she followed Caitlin Clark around,” Williams said.
“We applaud it in other directions, but now we want to apply race towards it,” he said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.