Angel Reese does not harbor hate for rival WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark despite persistent headlines and social media banter pitting the women against each other.
The same cannot be said about the Indiana Fever’s star player’s fans, who have taken efforts to tear down Angel too far. The Chicago Sky forward opened up about enduring the never-ending cyber attacks from Clark’s legion of supporters since the two athletes’ teams squared off during back-to-back NCAA title games in 2023.
Angel and the Louisiana State University Tigers won the championship a year ago against Clark and the University of Iowa Hawks. The “you can’t see me” hand gestures exchanged between the then-top college players fueled rampant discourses about racism being at the root of critics targeting Reese with claims of lacking sportsmanship compared to Clark.
Now, with both women in the throes of their debut seasons as professional basketball players, the attacks remain. Angel, who recently made WNBA history for having the most rebounds for a rookie, addressed the hate she faces on the “Unapologetically Angel” podcast on Sept. 5.
When asked by her co-host Maya Reese about her take on the media spinning a narrative of the two players being at odds, she first said, “Caitlin is an amazing player, and I’ve always thought she was an amazing player. We’ve been playing each other since high school.”
The 2024 rookie of the year contender continued, “I think it’s really just the fans—her fans, the Iowa fans, now the Indiana fans—that are like…they ride for her and I respect that. Sometimes it’s very disrespectful. I think there’s a lot of racism when it comes to it, and I don’t believe she stands on any of that.”
That girls fans give kkk and the fact that she’s remained silent on calling them out makes me believe she condones their low down dirt neck behavior. https://t.co/Xb7ohqFgK5
— 𝔸𝕞𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕒 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕒 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕓𝕝𝕖𝕞 (@lazytaurus__) September 6, 2024
As a clip of the conversation began to circulate on Twitter, one person commented, “I wouldn’t even doubt this s—t, some people are f—king weird.”
Clark has faced some backlash for not speaking out enough against the hate Angel receives or, at minimum, checking her fans for their attacks.
A podcast listener reacted to a snippet of Angel’s remarks in a tweet that read, “That girls fans give kkk and the fact that she’s remained silent on calling them out makes me believe she condones their low down dirt neck behavior.”
A resurfaced tweet that admonished the racist undercurrent of pro-Clark people, said, “Caitlin Clark is in the wrong league if she refuses to take a stand against racism. While she did not ask to be the great white hope, the magats have made her that and it’s causing real harm.”
As reported by ESPN in June, Clark expressed a desire to have her name kept out of racist and misogynistic conversations. “People should not be using my name to push those agendas. It’s disappointing. It’s not acceptable,” she told the media.
“I don’t put too much thought and time into thinking about things like that, and to be honest, I don’t see a lot of it,” she added. “Basketball is my job. Everything on the outside, I can’t control that, so I’m not going to spend time thinking about that.”
Yet, Angel and social media users agree that a sector of Clark’s following is volatile and racially charged and has no understanding of boundaries. The 6-foot-3 athlete said, “When it comes to death threats, like I’m talking about, people have come down to my address, follow me home, like it’s come down to that.”
Furthermore, the Maryland native revealed, “Multiple occasions people have made AI pictures of me like naked, literally. They have sent it to my family members. My family members are like uncles are sending it to me like, ‘Are you naked on Instagram?’… It sucks to see that and it’s really hard I have to go through that.”
The former LSU star was moved to tears in April in a postgame news conference, where she addressed facing death threats, being sexualized, and the subject of online attacks. “All this has happened since I won the national championship,” Angel said.
“And it sucks, but I still wouldn’t change anything, and I would still sit here and say I’m unapologetically me. I’m going to always leave that mark and be who I am and stand on that.” Her then-teammate Flau’jae Johnson also defended her, noting that her captain was a strong, caring, and loving person.
A month earlier, in March, she spoke out about AI photos of her floating around the web. At the time, she tweeted, “Creating fake AI pictures of me is crazy and weird AF!”