CLARK’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE: SHUT UP INDIANA’S RACISTS AND MEET WITH REESE
Their teams play four more times — and another outburst between them could lead to havoc in the United Center — while the Chicago Sky should consider boycotting the next game in Indianapolis
If some Black people hate Caitlin Clark and some white people hate Angel Reese — and they do — their racial anxieties should not be entangled on basketball courts in a racially divided America. Ugliness between a girl from West Des Moines and another girl from Baltimore County is not why we watch them. Their teams play four more times this season, including the evening of June 7 in Chicago, where another showdown of Caitlin vs. Angel could lead to havoc in the United Center.
The WNBA, from commissioner Cathy Engelbert through to franchise owners, should conduct serious talks with Clark and Reese in coming days. The league cannot have a continuation of what happened Saturday in Indianapolis: Clark yanking Reese’s arm and knocking her to the floor. It prompted Reese to confront Clark and fire F-bombs at her, triggering a flagrant 1 foul against Clark and more of the national anger following them since college.
Otherwise, we will attack the newfangled league for using the rivalry to lure millions of fans on TV and stoke the fury of racial fears. The question at the moment is whether Indiana has an uncommon number of rednecks — a few is more than enough — and isn’t capable of hosting a high-profile reflection of bigotry. The league, which repeatedly has said it condemns “racism, hate and discrimination in all forms,” is investigating how many Fever fans made racial remarks at Reese as the crowd loudly booed her.
How many? Several? Dozens? Hundreds? Does Engelbert really expect Reese and her teammates with the Chicago Sky, the team that abused Clark last season, to return to Gainbridge Fieldhouse in August? “We will do everything in our power to protect Chicago Sky players, and we encourage the league to continue taking meaningful steps to create a safe environment for all WNBA players,” the Sky said.
If not, how about blowing off the game? Clark continues to claim she hears no racial comments from the Indiana crowd. Is Reese lying? As the most idolized and watched female athlete of all time, Clark is positioned to say something meaningful. She didn’t Monday, when asked again about the episode.
“It's super loud in here," Clark said. “Although I didn't hear anything, I think that's why they're doing the investigation. That's why they're looking into it. That doesn't mean that nothing happened. You just trust the league's investigation and I'm sure they'll do the right thing. There’s no place for that in our game, there’s no place for that in society. We certainly want every person that comes into our arena — whether player, whether fan — to have a great experience.”
Her assertion was backed by Internet maniac Dave Portnoy, of all people, a Clark fan who was sitting in the stands Saturday and wrote on X: “The (WNBA) can’t get out of their own way. To issue a statement in response to trolls is a joke. It makes (Fever) fans look bad for no reason. It’s like they won’t be happy till they kill the golden goose. If I’m wrong I’ll apologize and eat my words but I’m 100 percent right. I think they're just trolls — they're just people who hate Caitlin Clark. They're trolls, and they're like, ‘Of course the Indiana Fever are making like monkey sounds and other racist sounds at Angel Reese,’ which is total garbage, totally made up. I was at the game.
“If there was someone being racist or saying s—t, obviously, boot him, never let him back. I would be stunned beyond belief if that was the case this crowd. I've sat on the wood for a million games, been in a million environments. The crowd at the Fever game: little girls, families, ladies. Nice crowd.”
Boos are part of sports, but in this case, they were wicked. As it is, the presence of Clark and the Indiana Pacers has turned the state into a stronghold of sports attention. It has reached the point where Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, a friend of Clark, is doing the city a major favor when he removes attention from Fever racists. You might have seen a fan, wearing a Haliburton jersey, who was assaulted with garbage bags and jeered outside Madison Square Garden last weekend. Hans Perez was invited by Haliburton for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against the New York Knicks.
“Everybody in our organization wants to make sure you're taken care of,” Haliburton told Perez on a video call after practice Monday. "All the team's excited to meet you. It's all we've been talking about.”
Does New York have more screwballs than Indiana has racists? We watched fans climb light fixtures and billboards and take over Seventh Avenue, with one throwing objects at ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Imagine if the Knicks win the conference title. Every time these teams play, we experience a cultural shock. Celebrity Row saw Bad Bunny hugging Timothee Chalamet, Lenny Kravitz sitting with Tracy Morgan (what?) while Ben Stiller, Spike Lee, Jason Sudeikis, Pete Davidson, Busta Rhymes, Remy Ma and Fat Joe gathered with Ice Spice and Sauce Gardner. Stephen A. Smith should be tossed from coverage by ESPN. He is the worst of fanboys.
The Pacers are inviting who, Mike Pence and Larry Bird?
Engelbert made the error of comparing Clark and Reese to Bird and Earvin Johnson. She knows it was wrong to say: “It is a little of that Bird–Magic moment, if you recall, from 1979, when those two rookies came in from a big college rivalry, one white, one Black. And so we have that moment with these two. But the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.”
Terri Jackson, executive director of the WNBPA, corrected her. “There is absolutely no place in sport — or in life — for the vile hate, racist language, homophobic comments, and the misogynistic attacks our players are facing on social media,” Jackson said. “This is not about rivalries or iconic personalities fueling a business model. This kind of toxic fandom should never be tolerated or left unchecked. It demands immediate action, and frankly, should have been addressed long ago.”
At least the NBA semifinalists will play ball, or so we think. Until then, Clark should make a trip to Chicago and meet with Reese. They need to speak, not as rivals. The league is filled with Black players and gay players when Clark is the all-time megastar. Just months ago, she said, “It’s definitely upsetting. Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism — hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats. Those aren’t fans, those are trolls, and it’s a real disservice to the people in our league, the organization, the WNBA.”
Then don’t come out firing in the first game with a shot at Reese, who wanted to take her down. As the league says, there is “No Space For Hate.” But not long ago, three-time MVP A’ja Wilson said of racial animosity: “It’s nice in words, but we got to see actions. Hopefully people can take actions and understand this is bigger than basketball. We’re true people behind it. Any shoe that we wear, any jersey we have on, we’re human. People have to respect that. I hope they pay attention and listen to the words.”
At least Wilson received a signature shoe from Nike, which paid her in a six-year contract. She did not get anywhere near what Clark received: $28 million. Keep listening, she’ll say.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.