The Importance Of LSU Star Angel Reese's Shameless Trash Talking

Two things happened on April 2 that piqued this non-sports-fanatics curiosity. 

First, the Louisiana State University (LSU) womens basketball team clinched a historic national championship win , which is dope because my pops is a Louisiana-born boy whose big sister lives up the road in Baton Rouge. And my niece once played for that same team. 

The second thing was LSU small forward Angel Reese, and the reason shes dominating headlines and Twitter trends that, unfortunately, have nothing to do with the Tigers win. 

During the fourth quarter of the championship game against the Iowa Hawkeyes, Reese made a hand gesture pointing at her ring finger directed toward Caitlyn Clark, the Hawkeyes point guard whose phenom status has singlehandedly brought more attention to womens college basketball than its experienced in a while.

The you cant see me hand gesture, originated by rapper Tony Yayo  and was later popularized by WWE star John Cena, was used by Clark earlier in the tournament. Reese then pointed to her ring finger in a bout of prescient, nonverbal trash-talking, indicating that she was going home with that championship ring. No physical contact or obscene gestures just good old-fashioned taunting that their male peers have been doing since sports were sports.

Unfortunately, that didnt stop the unwashed Twitter denizens from fomenting their hot, musty takes. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy called Reese a classless piece of shit. Keith Olbermann, who is a full 43 years older than Reese, called Reese a fucking idiot . Which is like a porcupine calling a rose bush spiny . (He has since apologized , if you want to call it that.)

No doubt theres the patriarchal double standard at play regarding many folks belief that women in sports should just shut up and dribble. But theres also that painfully obvious sentiment that Black women in sports are scrutinized more than their white counterparts. 

Our dubious history of placing a magnifying glass over successful Black women athletes in a manner we dont reserve for others dates back to the late Florence Griffith-Joyner, who smashed so many track and field records in the late 1980s and did so with style that she simply had to be doping, though she never tested positive .  

Fortunately for her, FloJo didnt have to deal with social media hot takes. However, when Serena Williams, arguably the greatest tennis player of all time, broke a racket out of frustration in the 2018 U.S. Open finals against Naomi Osaka, it was open season on her in a manner that suggested she didnt deserve to be the best. Then, of course, theres also that ridiculously offensive cartoon with Williams looking like a linebacker golliwog. 

When track and field sprinter ShaCarri Richardson, who made headlines in 2021 for kicking ass, was temporarily sidelined after testing positive for cannabis , Twitter was a full-blown mess of a (very thinly) coded racist language that suggested that she didnt deserve the accolades she earned justly. Her long weave, big eyelashes and tattoos were weaponized against her.  

In contrast, Clark, basketballs Great White Hope, has also made the Cena gesture in competition, and no one bats an eye. Her competitive nature and trash talk are so pervasive that ESPN cut a fun video . Imagine, if you will, a similar video about Reese in a world where Black aggression comes off as a threat to everyone. 

(Also, imagine Jill Biden extending a White House invite to the losing team if the Tigers were that team.)

The irony of my participating in this din aside, headlines shouldnt focus on Reeses innocuous hand gesture but on the fact that NCAA womens basketball is breaking records  and that more people cared about Sundays game than anything happening on the boys side during March Madness. It matters far more than the Tigers-Hawkeyes matchup in which we got to see the best players in a league go head up is a sports fans wet dream.

But, because Twitter does what it does, everyone wanted to know what Reese thought of the criticism of her gesture during a postgame conference. And she let everyone know exactly what time it is. 

All year, I was critiqued for who I was. I dont fit the narrative, she said. I dont fit the box that yall want me to be in. Im too hood. Im too ghetto. Yall told me that all year. But when other people do it, and yall dont say nothing.

So, this is for the girls that look like me. For those that want to speak up for what they believe in. Its unapologetically you. And thats what I did it for tonight. It was bigger than me tonight. And Twitter is going to go into a rage every time.

Clark couldve been petty about Reeses taunts and joined the parade of criticism, but her pre-game conference statements suggest that she recognizes that people need to remove the sticks from their nether regions and acknowledge that (gasp!) women athletes can do what the men have been doing for years.

More than anything, People are starting to understand that women can play with excitement and passion and a fire about themselves, Clark said. Thats whats fun thats what people wanna see. But you leave it on the court. When you step off, youre friends you support one another. 

Hear that, Olbermann and all the other stodgy old white men bitching about professionalism? These two talented young ladies, one barely old enough to drink legally, are schooling all of you on how this athletics thing works. Pay attention.