Stephen A. Smith believes there’s a racial component within the response to Angel Reese taunting Caitlin Clark within the national championship game.
As Reese and LSU defeated Clark’s Iowa squad on Sunday to win the national title, Reese hit Clark with the John Cena “You Can’t See Me” hand gesture.
Speaking on ESPN’s “First Take,” Smith said he’s an enormous fan of Clark and that she has the potential to be the best women’s basketball of all-time, before saying he couldn’t let her off the hook.
“She instigated this sort of stuff — let’s call it what it’s,” Smith said.
“She was waving. She was doing the Cena. How about what she did to Raven Johnson? She didn’t just go into the lane and never guard her against South Carolina within the semifinals. She waved her off! She didn’t mind being disrespectful! So why is it that we’re hesitant to bring that up?”
Smith concluded that race was a think about the disparate commentary.
“Everyone knows that there’s a white/black issue here, because the very fact of the matter is when Caitlin did it people were celebrating it, they usually were talking about nothing but her greatness,” Smith said.
“But then the second a sister stepped up, and threw it back in her face, now you’ve got half the basketball world saying, [in a mocking tone], ‘Well, that’s not the classiest thing to do.’ It was the very same thing!”
In her postgame interview on ESPN, Reese mentioned what Smith was alluding to — that she delivered the gesture to Clark in response to what happened with Clark and South Carolina.
“I used to be waiting,” Reese said.
“Caitlin Clark is a hell of a player obviously, but I don’t take disrespect evenly. She disrespected Alexis [Morris] and my girls, South Carolina, they’re my SEC girls too. Y’all not going to disrespect them either.”
Smith continued to say that individuals who ripped Reese but not Clark were applying their critiques inconsistently.
“The incontrovertible fact that [Caitlin Clark’s instigation] hasn’t been brought up tells us so much about our society as a complete,” he said.
“You recognize exactly what the hell you’re doing as people if you bring up how Angel Reese acted, but you don’t wish to bring up how Caitlin Clark acted.”