Angel Reese stated what she needed to say in her podcast debut on Thursday, all on the expense of Caitlin Clark followers.
Within the first episode of her podcast, the WNBA Rookie of the Yr contender used a section to debate her private historical past with followers of her longtime rival, Clark.
Reese didn’t immediately criticize Clark, however she mirrored on the second her interactions with Clark actually started to ramp up. It occurred proper when she made the celebratory gesture of pointing to her ring finger in Clark’s face throughout the ultimate minutes of Reese’s and LSU’s NCAA title win over Clark and Iowa within the 2023 championship sport.
It was a second that Reese says “modified my life eternally.” It was a second that ignited a sequence of intense interactions between sure members of Clark’s passionate followers and Reese and a few of her Chicago Sky teammates.
“I feel it is actually simply the followers, her followers, the Iowa followers, now the Indiana followers, which are actually simply, they journey for her, and I respect that, respectfully. However typically it is very disrespectful. I feel there’s loads of racism on the subject of it,” Reese stated.
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Caitlin Clark, left, of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky look on throughout a sport at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on June 16, 2024, in Indianapolis. (Emilee Chinn/Getty Pictures)
Reese went on to checklist demise threats and other people coming proper to her residence as an alleged instance of a measure Clark’s followers have taken in response to their rivalry.
“Folks have come right down to my deal with, adopted me residence, it is come right down to that,” Reese stated.
Reese even alleges that some followers have made AI-generated pictures of her, depicting her with out garments on, and despatched them to her members of the family.
“A number of events, folks have made AI-images of me bare. They’ve despatched it to my members of the family. My members of the family are like uncles, sending it to me like, ‘Are you bare on Instagram?’” Reese stated. “It sucks having to undergo that and see different gamers must undergo that.”
Reese’s rivalry with Clark has culminated in a number of controversial moments all through their faculty and professional careers already. There have been a number of situations during which these moments have resulted in high-profile scrutiny of Reese.
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Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark smiles as she appears to be like on the group bench after making a move to the basket that led to a rating within the second half towards the Dallas Wings, Sept. 1, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photograph/Tony Gutierrez)
After the preliminary second during which Reese pointed to her finger within the 2023 NCAA girls’s title sport that she stated “modified her life eternally,” Barstool founder Dave Portnoy re-posted a video of the clip with the caption “Classless piece of s—,” on X. It is a submit that has 79.5 million views on X on the time of publication.
Portnoy levied related assaults at Reese all through the 2024 event and early in her WNBA profession.
Related incidents have occurred to Reese’s Sky teammates for arduous fouls on Clark in matchups towards the Fever this season.
After committing a tough flagrant-1 foul that despatched Clark flying throughout the ground in a sport final week, Chicago’s Diamond DeShields posted screenshots of an Instagram consumer leaving hate feedback on her submit, referencing a tumor she had eliminated in 2020. That yr, she was recognized with a benign tumor on her spinal twine in 2020. She risked paralysis when she had it surgically eliminated and suffered painful tremors whereas recovering from the process.
Sky guard Chennedy Carter dedicated one of the vital scrutinized fouls of the WNBA season on Clark in an early June matchup, when Carter dedicated an unlawful hip test on Clark whereas she was simply standing there, knocking her to the hardwood.
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Chicago Sky ahead Angel Reese grabs a rebound towards the New York Liberty. (Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports activities)
She then responded to a flurry of criticism on social media for the foul with a submit acknowledging it: “Troll notifications blowing up. I like it,” Carter wrote on X that day.
For Reese, Thursday was not the primary time she has opened up in regards to the remedy she will get on-line from Clark’s followers. After Reese and LSU misplaced to Clark and Iowa on this yr’s Elite Eight within the NCAA Match, Reese cried within the press convention as she revealed what sort of issues she had been informed that yr.
“I’ve been by a lot. I’ve seen a lot. I’ve been attacked so many occasions. Loss of life threats, I’ve been sexualized, I’ve been threatened. There are such a lot of issues, and I’ve stood sturdy each single time. I simply attempt to stand sturdy for my teammates as a result of I don’t need them to see me down and never be there for them. I’m nonetheless a human. All of this has occurred since I gained the nationwide championship. I stated the opposite day I haven’t [been] blissful since then.”
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