Besides her dominant gameplay and slick moves on the court, Angel Reese is widely known for her bold and unapologetic trash-talking. During last season’s national championship game against Iowa Hawkeyes, Angel pulled off the iconic ‘You can’t see me’ move at Caitlin Clark that was popularized by WWE legend John Cena. Notably, the move was earlier used by Caitlin Clark in the tournament.

However, her confident gesturing was taken otherwise as people erupted with hate comments on social media calling her ‘classless’ or worse. Not backing down from the hate Angel has always been a vocal advocate for young Black women athletes, whose trash-talking prowess isn’t just about winning but also visibility and representation. Now that she has caught the NFL’s trash-talking king, things look better for once.

Angel Reese earns respect from the Trash-talking Ph.D.

In a recent video featured on Can Newton’s 4th&1 show on his YouTube channel, Newton can be seen sharing his point of view on several things. One of the points included for discussion was Angel Reese’s trash talk at a free throw that left Newton dumbfounded.

In the episode, a clip of Angel’s free throw shot against Tennessee Vols is being played where she is having a clap-back moment asking, “Who are you talking to? You can’t be talking to me! How many points you got? F**k wrong with you.” Seeing her giving a confident mental defense while making a free throw Newton couldn’t hold himself back from expressing his thoughts.

To his partner on the show, he says, “You talking to a person that got his PhD in trash talking. Now, I got my masters like I can go Toe to Toe with anybody, anybody I can do it respect I could do it in the church or I could do it in the hood either way.”

“Angel, Baby, respect! You know everybody, you know you gotta, you got to know the angles to it and then I done been around people with a punchline it hit,” he adds while acknowledging Reese for her magnificent trash-talking skills.

Read More: Outspoken Angel Reese Answers Some Unreserved Questions in Her Women’s Health Cover Shoot

Trash-talking is an inseparable part of basketball, especially when it comes to the players standing on the free-throw line. Just like their male counterparts, athletes of college women’s basketball engage in verbal altercations on the court.

Trash-talking trend

Over the last few years, the growth of women’s basketball paired with increased media attention has put trash-talking and high emotion on a wide screen for everyone to see. Things like gestures of dominance, crowds being shushed by players, and verbal exchange are now a part of the game, and maybe sometimes in a healthy motivating way.

Angel Reese’s moves, which were earlier used by Caitlin Clark saw a lot of hate on the internet. However, Clark denied of it being anything more than a healthy rivalry in team spirit as the incident had snowballed into a massive gender parity charade on social media.