Louisiana State University defeated the University of Iowa to win the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, which marks LSU’s first national title. But since LSU’s victory on Sunday, the conversations around the title game have been less about the game itself and more about a gesture made in the game’s final seconds—and the double standard applied to LSU’s star player compared to Iowa’s.
Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, considered one of the best players in college basketball right now (and recently named AP women’s Player of the Year), went viral for taunting Louisville during Iowa’s dominant run in its Elite Eight matchup last week.
In the closing seconds of the championship matchup, which LSU won 102-85, LSU forward Angel Reese—who was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player—did the same “You can’t see me” taunt toward Clark and repeatedly pointed at her ring finger, indicating the ring that she and her LSU teammates would receive by winning the tournament.
The taunt, referred to as “You can’t see me,” originated with John Cena during his tenure in the WWE. When Clark did the taunt, she was largely praised and even got a seal of approval from Cena. When Reese did the taunt less than a week later, it fueled backlash and discourse around what some have called a “classless” gesture.
For many, the difference in how some people are responding to Reese’s taunts with derision versus the praise or celebration of Clark’s taunts shows the racist double standard present in sports.
Even other athletes could see the difference in how people treated Clark versus Reese.
“It’s so obvious what this is. This is not about anything else other than race,” Fox Sports commentator Shannon Sharpe said of the response to Reese’s taunt.
Keith Olbermann, who initially called Reese “a fucking idiot” for taunting Clark, said he was unaware that Clark had made a similar taunt earlier in the tournament after being called out for his reaction to Reese’s actions. In an apology—not for what he said about Reese but for “being uninformed”—Olbermann added that “women’s hoops has now achieved parity with the men: its stars can be classless winners who are willing to overshadow their own team’s victories.”
Reese referenced the double standard she faced throughout the year (and not just during the championship) in a post-game press conference.
“All year I was critiqued about who I was,” she said. “I don’t fit the narrative, I don’t fit the box y’all want me to be in. I’m too hood, I’m too ghetto, y’all told me that all year. But when other people do it, y’all don’t say nothing. So this is for the girls that look like me. For those that want to speak up for what they believe in. It’s unapologetically you. It was bigger than me tonight. And Twitter is going to go into a rage every time.”
And for some, Reese not backing down endeared her even more.
