Charles Barkley Says Race Plays Role In Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark Controversy
The LSU Tigers winning their first women's basketball national championship with their blowout victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes isn't the story of the moment. Instead, it's LSU's Angel Reese taunting Iowa's Caitlin Clark throughout the closing minutes of the contest. Everyone in the media has given their take on the situation, and that group now includes Charles Barkley.
The Hall of Famer believes that Reese's trash talking took away from the game, which is an opinion that's hard to argue against.
“Well, I thought it took away from the game,” Barkley said, according to AL.com. “In fairness, Caitlin did that in the game before. I thought it took too much attention away from a great performance. She’s amazing.”
Barkley is referring to Clark doing John Cena's 'You Can't See Me' gesture during Iowa's win over Louisville earlier in the tournament. Reese pulled out the same move against the Hawkeyes, but the two situations weren't the same whatsoever.
Reese sought out Clark every moment she could pointing to her ring finger and doing the ‘You Can’t See Me’ hand motion.
Clark pulled out the taunt as she walks back to her team’s bench against the Cardinals.
Anyone living in reality can see that Clark's taunting was far more subtle than Reese's, but Barkley thinks that the media is only seeing it that way because Reese is black and Clark is white.
“You have all these folks on the Internet and on television,” Charles Barkley said. “First, they gonna make it about race, which is part of it. ... They deserve to celebrate. I thought it was unfortunate because people are talking more about that than what a great performance (it was).”
Barkley is far from the only one who has brought race into the conversation. ESPN's Jay Williams insinuated that those that are critical of Reese's actions and not Clark's are racist.