The images show LSU’s Angel Reese giving Iowa’s Caitlin Clark several taunting gestures as time ticked down during the 2023 women’s college basketball national championship will be the ones remembered most about the game.
The rivalry between the players and programs became a central storyline over the last two seasons. In retrospect, Clark wishes the media focus had been more on their personal accomplishments and less on creating narratives about them.
Clark discussed her frustration in ESPN/ABC’s docuseries Full Court Press, which debuted this past weekend.
That’s the only thing people wanted to talk about when we just went on this magical run and united so many people, and that, like, was frustrating to me,” Clark said.
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder had a much more blunt take on the situation, saying “The media was trying to create a circus out of racial things, out of trying to make hatred come up, and she [Clark] just wouldn’t let it happen.”
Both Clark and Reese would later say that Reese’s gestures were a welcomed part of the competition between them and there was no personal animus between them off the court.
“Me and Caitlin Clark don’t hate each other. I want everybody to understand that. It’s just a super competitive game,” Reese said in April before their Elite Eight rematch. “Once I get between those lines, there’s no friends. I have plenty of friends on the court that I talk to outside of the game, but like when I get between those lines, we’re not friends. We’re not buddies. I’m going to talk trash to you. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get in your head the whole entire game, but after the game, we can kick it.”
It was also noted at the time that while Reese’s usage of the “You can’t see me” gesture received a lot of backlash and commentary, Clark’s use of the same gesture in Iowa’s Final Four win over Louisville was not. That led to a lot of discussion around the racial aspects of the divided coverage and the double standards that seemed to be in play.
The good news for both basketball players is that they now get to compete in the WNBA, meaning those epic college basketball games will be only the start of the story they’re still writing.
