America is sharply divided after college basketball player Angel Reese brutally mocked her opponent in the final minutes of a crucial game.
LSU Tigers star Angel Reese was pictured making a “you can’t see me” gesture towards Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark, a signal made famous by wrestling star John Cena.
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She then pointed towards her ring finger in a reference to the championship ring she was about to win.
The brutal trash talk went on for about 10 seconds as she aggressively stalked Clark around the basketball court in the final moments of the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament championship game.
Her gestures soon became a national talking point, dredging up issues of poor sportsmanship, racism and double standards.
ESPN tweeted an image of the incident writing, “This photo is so cold”, which quickly went viral.
It wasn’t long before the photo was being memorialised on T-shirts.
Reese has since copped plenty of criticism for taunting her opponent as victory was all but secured.
Former ESPN host Keith Olbermann was blunt, calling Reese an “idiot”.
Danny Kanell from CBS Sports wrote: “What a classless move by Angel Reese. Doing WAY too much to taunt Clark.”
Sports website editor Jose de Jesus Ortiz also had a crack at the star writing: “This is classless. Angel Reese is only 20, so she’s still young, but taunting Caitlin Clark like this shows a pure lack of class. Win with class, lose with class, play with class. Clark’s mom and dad can be proud that her daughter ignored the taunting. They raised her right.”
It should be noted, Clark made the same John Cena celebration in Iowa’s Elite Eight win over Louisville when she had a 40-point triple-double.
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Reese herself has remained unapologetic.
“All year I was critiqued about who I was,” she said in an interview after the game.
“I don’t fit the narrative. I don’t fit in a box which ya’ll want me to be in.
I’m too hood, I’m too ghetto. Y’all told me that all year. But when other people do it, y’all don’t say nothing. So this is for the girls that look like me. That’s going to speak up in what they believe in.”
NBA great Shaquille O’Neal rushed to her defence after sports commentator Keith Olbermann called Reese a “f**king idiot”.
Shaq responded: “Shut your dumb ass up leave Angel Reese alone.”
Reese later retweet Shaq and commented: “Yeah my uncle Shaq don’t play ‘bout me. Period.”
The intense criticism has also sparked accusations of racism and double standards.
Journalist Brian Krassenstein wrote: “When a white woman from Iowa, Caitlin Clark taunts the other team during a game it’s ‘funny’ and ‘part of competition’.
“When a black woman from Louisiana, Angel Reese, decides to do it back, she’s ‘not showing sportsmanship’ and ‘disgusting’.
“If you ever needed an example of systemic racism in American culture and why books on such should not be banned from schools, THIS IS IT!”
Bishop Talbert Swan also weighed in writing: “When Caitlin Clark taunted Louisville in the Elite Eight, she was praised.
“When Angel Reese, taunted Caitlin Clark with the exact same gesture in the championship, she was called classless. I wonder whyTE [sic].”
Reese later explained her reason for taunting Clark was because Clark had previously “disrespected” her teammate, LSU guard Alexis Morris.
“I was waiting,” Reese said on the ESPN postgame show.
“Caitlin Clark is a hell of a player for sure, but I don’t take disrespect lightly.
“She disrespected Alexis [Morris] and my girls, South Carolina, they’re my SEC girls too. Y’all not going to disrespect them either.
“I wanted to pick her pocket, but I had a moment at the end of the game, and I was in my bag. I was in my moment.”
– with the New York Post