The Angel Reese Situation: Much Ado About Nothing
I’m going to start in a different direction with this (i.e., digress) but I’m starting here to bring home the beginning of my point, then move on to the subject totally. I don’t have a desire to watch college basketball after those punks — presidents, Athletic Directors, whatever they are — decided to suspend players for kneeling during the anthem/flag about two years ago. Now, a certain demographic may call that right, but I call it bullying, manipulation, and to put in the street vernacular: “bitch ass shit”. I’ll discuss things like that and more in an upcoming book.
Aside from when I watched the tape of NBA prospects for last year’s draft when I took a Sports Management class for Basketball GM/Scouting, I didn’t watch college basketball at all as far as sitting down watching it on TV. I say that to say I didn’t watch when the LSU Tigers Women’s team beat the Iowa Hawkeyes Women’s team for their first ever NCAA Women’s National Championship on Sunday — congrats to those ladies, by the way.
However, there was a somehow “controversial” incident that took place when LSU’s Angel Reese taunted Iowa’s Caitlin Clark by pointing at her ring finger, indicating that her team just won the championship, and they didn’t. For some reason, people were outraged by this, and, to me, it’s much ado about nothing.
If Angel flipped her off, grabbed her crotch at her, or worse, spit in her face, I could understand people being upset, but all she did was what you see in the photo above, and this seriously offended some people. It’s ridiculous how people are with this selective outrage and being easily offended. On top of that, from my understanding, both ladies were taunting throughout the course of the game, but for some reason, Angel is getting the heat.
I don’t get it. What is it? Maybe it’s because she taunted a white girl, I guess. While trash talking and taunting is not my thing because things can go south quickly, and some people take it out of hand, I realize it’s a part of the game, like it or not. Everybody is not the same. Not everyone is going to bow like Samurai warriors, clash swords, and walk away peacefully. Again, trash talking is not my thing, but I don’t expect everybody to be like me or do things the way I do it. The one thing I will say to trash talkers is if you dish out, make sure you can take it.
Last year, when Golden State won the NBA Finals, shortly before Game 6 ended, Stephen Curry made a gesture that indicated “nighty-night,” or “go to sleep,” or whatever the hell that was supposed to mean, and nobody said anything. As a matter of fact, some people started imitating it. All this woman did was point at her ring finger towards someone, and folks are ready to crucify her.
Not saying what Steph did was wrong or offensive necessarily, but technically what he and Reese both did was taunting. Yet, people are imitating him but criticizing her. I’m lost. I tell you players like Gary Payton and Kevin Garnett wouldn’t make it in today’s game because trash talking was a part of their game, and seems like the slightest thing have people in their feelings nowadays.
Of course, I don’t condone the selective outrage and people being easily offended, but if you’re going to go there, at least be consistent. I hope she doesn’t make a bullshit apology like players tend to break down and do because I didn’t see anything that warranted the backlash she received. My response to this is, “Big freaking deal.”
