The fallout from what should have culminated in only a celebratory moment for the champion LSU women’s basketball team is ongoing. Basketball analyst Jay Williams joined the noise of those appalled at LSU’s Angel Reese’s competitive taunts at Caitlin Clark toward the end of the game.
As a fellow NCAA champion, Williams knows that the only thing we should be discussing is LSU’s win.
“Trash talking is OK, people,” Williams said during Monday’s “J Will, Keyshawn and Max” radio show. “We see it with Patrick Beverley and Austin Reeves, and we applaud it. We see it with the way Russell Westbrook is being guarded in the playoffs, where people sit in the lane, and they don’t guard him. We saw that with Caitlin Clark against South Carolina going against Raven Johnson, wiping away off the hands. We’ve seen Caitlin Clark with the John Cena hands; now you see me, now you don’t; it’s part of the game.
“The thing that bothered me is while Angel Reese is doing it during towards the end of the game, we have a certain section of people that then want to come out and call people like Angel Reese, who is 20 years old; Now think about this, the narrative that’s been following this team all year long has been they’re ghetto, they’re thugs. Think about what you heard Dawn Staley talk about the other day. ‘We’re not bar fighters; we’re not thugs, we’re not monkeys, we’re not street fighters,’ and today I’m pissed off because instead of talking about and celebrating LSU, we’re talking about elements of race and double standards.”
Race x Sports x Culture
Reese’s celebration drew the ire of many fans watching, including former ESPN host Keith Olbermann who tweeted out, “What a f***ing idiot.” In a response, Shaquille O’Neal went to Twitter and advised Olbermann to “Shut your dumb a– up, leave Angel Reese alone,” in a tweet.
Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, called Reese “a classless piece of s**t,” on Twitter with a video of Reese’s on-court gesture to be clear who he was talking about. Jemele Hill, a contributor for The Atlantic who was once a face for ESPN took to Twitter to confront Portnoy on the comment. “So I’m going to pick this fight. F**k you.”
Williams wanted the double standard he sees to be spelled out to clarify how he feels and who he is directing it towards.
Stop It, 5
“So when Caitlin Clark is doing all of this, ‘she has swag,’ ‘she’s a competitor,’ ‘she’s lost in the juices,’ ‘this is what we love.'” Williams continued. “But when Angel Reese does it, and was it a tad bit excessive? Could she have been called a ‘T’? Sure, if the refs wanted to call her on a ‘T’ at the end of the game for trash-talking because she followed Caitlin Clark around. But these are the same things that motivates young people in sports, and we applaud it in other directions, but now we want to apply race towards it.
“Or we want to apply, ‘look at her she’s a classless piece of,’ that’s what Dave Portnoy said; I’m putting names on it. Keith Olbermann called her a blanking idiot on Twitter. What are we doing? Why are we taking it to that level? If you want to criticize it and say call a tech, fine, I’m okay with that. At least you have some kind of informed opinion on it, but now we’re name-calling? Now we’re questioning people’s character off winning a championship? I’m not going to allow that to happen on our show and also nationally.”
With outrage now boiling over first lady Dr. Jill Biden suggesting that LSU and Iowa be brought to the White House to celebrate, the race, sports, and cultural elements defining the 2023 women’s NCAA basketball year are front and center.
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