Angel Reese shares TikTok trolling 'white girl' Caitlin Clark as bitter WNBA rivalry intensifies

Angel Reese ratcheted up her feud with Caitlin Clark on Tuesday as she re-posted a TikTok trolling her 'white girl' rival.

The pair clashed over the weekend, as Clark was assessed a flagrant foul for slapping across Reese's arm and ultimately sending her to the ground. An incensed Reese then beelined for Clark when she got up before others intervened to keep them separated.

And while Reese later said the foul from Clark was a 'basketball play,' she's evidently still thinking about the moment, as she re-posted a video insulting Clark.

No women’s gymnast, skater, skier or track and field gold medalist would make the finals in a unisex competition. It’s the same for female golf and tennis players. By and large, the best female athletes in the world wouldn’t even make the national team or qualify for elite national or international competitions. Of the major sports, golf might be the most open to a crossover, and a handful of women have played in men’s events. None have ever come close to winning anything. And plenty of them practice and scrimmage against the men, because you improve by playing someone better than yourself. If you’re at the top of the women’s game, you seek out men for practice — and accept getting smoked if a scrimmage or practice session turns serious.

This doesn’t stop most of us from cheering for the American women against all them furriners.

Sugar Ray Leonard was arguably a better boxer than Cassius Clay and Joe Frasier, back when they were in their Olympic glory days and proud to wave the U.S. flag from the medal stand. (Joe and Sugar Ray never wavered on that.) But Sugar Ray would have been lucky to survive two rounds with the other two.

At elite levels, the overlap between the top male and female performers is zero. In youth sports, the girls hang in with the boys until puberty sets in. Then the differentiation is very rapid. Does this mean girls shouldn’t play sports? No. It means we should accept class based competitions. And let women’s teams find their own level in terms of fanbase, league structure and tv contracts. At the college and professional levels, all sports are luxury entertainment products competing for people’s leisure time and entertainment dollars. It’s all about ticket sales and viewship on tv.

If the women can find an audience and build a fanbase, there’s no reason they can’t succeed. Women’s golf and tennis already have. Prior to Megan Rapinoe poisoning the well, the USWNT was America’s Team, with the soccer princess thing going big time. I always thought women’s professional soccer would be the first women’s team sport to break through. I still do, if they can stay focused on building it the right way, not getting greedy, and keeping political grandstanding out of it.

If the women can find an audience and build a fanbase, there’s no reason they can’t succeed. Women’s golf and tennis already have

A lot of that comes down to how one spends their money and time. I don't watch a lot women's sports, but watch a bit of the bigger events in golf and tennis, As far as women's golf goes, there is a solid base of potential viewers. I see women golfers on the course all the time. Where I live, tennis is pretty much dead. About half the courts have been converted to pickleball courts and it is dead after a couple of good years.

True. Women’s golf and tennis have been mainstreamed, but those consist of a string of tournaments, so the big time players come to town once a year. That will draw a crowd.

Selling team sports and league play is a different proposition and a harder sell. When the PGA or LPGA tour rolls around, if it’s a major event, most of the big names will be there. That’s not the case in a head to head matchup between two teams in league play; the NWSL does try to keep the USWNT players spread around the league, but that gets tricky. They are draws, but they also disappear during national team callups and major international tournaments.

What is needed is a fanbase that grew up with the team, that has followed it though up and down cycles, knows the players, and follows the draft — i.e., exactly what keeps fandoms engaged in the NFL, NBA and MLB. And fwiw, women’s soccer is a cheaper ticket than any of the men’s sports — and currently here in DC, the men’s teams are pathetic while the women’s team (if they can stay healthy) is a contender. They’ve had some tough rebuilding years, but they’ve become a good team in the recent cycle; their problem at the moment is that the injury bug has settled in for a long residency. If they can get healthy, they’ll be in the hunt, but as it is, they’re hanging tough with seven probable starters out. (One is out on pregnancy leave, which is another big difference between men’s and women’s sports. Yes, there are married heterosexual players in the NWSL. That’s a secret, so keep it between you and me. And not all of them want to wait until they are 35 to start having kids.)

But even so, they’re playing good soccer in front of big crowds in an appropriately sized stadium that is close enough for me to ride my bike. What’s not to like, now that Megan Rapinoe has finally taken her poison pill act into retirement? The stadium rocks and the women are good, as compared to the pathetic display put on by our current men’s teams.

Since our daughters are soccer fans, we see some MLS games as well — but would you rather watch winners or losers on the field? I’d go to some Nats games as well, if the owners ever decide that they want to put a winning team on the field again. As it stands, they’re drifting along on tv money, looking to sell, and doing bare minimum to field a team.

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