While the LSU Tigers continue to bask in the glory of being the new national champions, the team’s star player Angel Reese remains tangled in controversy. Following her in-game celebratory gesture toward Iowa Hawkeyes’ Caitlin Clark, she found herself under scrutiny when basketball fans lashed out at the 20-year-old player for being classless. This prompted Reese to fire back with a befitting reply during the media conference, but it seems like one response just wasn’t enough to justify her actions.

Reese’s ‘You can’t see me’ gesture has effectively divided the internet into two groups. While half of the fans extended their support towards the Tigers’ star forward, the other half didn’t take Reese’s actions too kindly. Interestingly, the young basketball star has also received immense support from Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal, who recently slammed a critic for publicly calling out Reese.

Angel Reese defends her actions

There was one common reason that came coming up in the whole Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark drama. Several fan comments suggested that critics believed that the two situations were completely different. While both used similar gestures, fans stated that while Clark directed her celebration toward the bench, Reese sought her opponent out during the game to taunt her. After Reese addressed the issue during a post-game media conference, she was once again prompted to give her thoughts on the matter during an interview with Ashley Nicole Moss of the I Am Athlete podcast.

During a brief chat, Moss asked Reese for her response to all the people who used the aforementioned reason to justify their reaction toward her. Reese said, “Honestly, it’s no excuse. I don’t think that there’s an excuse for that.”

Furthermore, she added, “The thing is I’ve had a narrative all year of what they told me ‘I was too hood, I was too ghetto. She plays dirty, she plays too hard’. Anything I do, it goes viral every single time, positive or negative. When she did it, everybody was so happy. When I did it, it was an issue just because of what I look like.”

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Considering she is coming off a historic win for the LSU women, Reese shouldn’t be having to defend herself so fiercely. The focus has remained on her antics rather than on her performances that led to the historic title.

Uncle Shaq stepped in to defend Reese

Shortly after the NCAA Finals, Dave Portnoy of The Barstool Sports took to Twitter and called her a ‘classless piece of sh*t’ on the social media platform. This did not sit well with NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, who did not take long to respond to Portnoy’s tweet.

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The 4x NBA champion showed his support for Reese by slamming Portnoy with a tweet that read, “And so is your mother.” Shaq also did not refrain from calling out sports commentator Keith Olbermann for his tweet.

Reese has found support from various people in the NBA community. While her actions might be polarizing, there is no doubt that she is a future star. It will be exciting to see her in the WNBA in the next few years. What are your thoughts on Reese’s clarification? Let us know in the comments.