ESPN star suggests Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese incident became talking point for more than racial reasons

ESPN star Stephen A Smith weighed in on Monday about why Catilin Clark s hard foul on Angel Reese became a major story of the sports weekend Clark s foul under the basket came after Reese pushed off of an Indiana Fever participant to secure an offensive rebound Clark fouled the Chicago Sky forward in order to prevent an easy two points Reese let Clark have an earful over the foul Clark s personal foul was upgraded to a flagrant foul CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS COMThe two WNBA stars downplayed the foul in their postgame press conferences but it still became a hot topic of debate because of the history the two young athletes have First Take host Molly Qerim inquired bluntly whether the story of Clark and Reese becoming trending news was because it was women being physical with each other or was it because it involved a Black and a White sportsman It s not about Black and White it s about that White contestant and that Black member Smith noted of Clark and Reese Why Because of the history they had before they came to the WNBA If Angel Reese was never in Caitlin Clark s face taunting her the way that she did mimicking what Caitlin Clark was doing to numerous opponents in journey to the Final Four and then LSU and Angel Reese busted their you know what at that particular moment in time and Angel Reese was in her face chirping at her the way that she did it would have never gotten to this point I have never deemed that to be a bad thing I love that kind of confrontation I love that kind of heat But there are White folks in America had a challenge with Angel Reese coming at The Chosen One Caitlin Clark that way And because of that they ve acted with a level of vitriol How do we know that Because Angel Reese came back to college following year and one of the things that reduced her to tears was the vitriol that she was receiving from around the country because were hating on her because of her elevated popularity and the fact that she had gone at Caitlin Clark that way DAVE PORTNOY SLAMS WNBA AS LEAGUE INVESTIGATES 'HATEFUL COMMENTS' TOWARD ANGEL REESE Now we come to the WNBA No fault of Caitlin s at all But in the end because of her greatness and because people were resistant to accepting the way I have articulated on countless occasions you have people using that as an excuse to throw vitriol at other people In the end here s what I say that s what s contributed to Angel Reese becoming a household name along with the fact that she s a rebounding demon but that s elevated her level of popularity Smith pointed to the rivalry Larry Bird and Earvin Magic Johnson had in the NBA It started at the college level and blossomed into the NBA He drew a comparative racial line between the NBA greats and young WNBA stars What I would say all of y all is this no matter how great Michael Jordan was obviously it started with Bird vs Magic Yeah you can talk about Showtime vs Boston but that White superstar losing in that national championship match to that dude called Magic at Michigan State when Bird was at Indiana State and him coming into the NBA he disclosed They constantly made the Finals and they owned bulk of the s in terms of the two teams respectively The bottom line is it contributed to elevate the popularity So Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark embrace this It s OK because all y all doing is competing Indiana won the first of five games against Chicago Clark had a triple-double and Reese had a double-double Follow Fox News Digital s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter