Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese continue to dominate the WNBA headlines. Their on-court rivalry aside, Reese was pretty vocal about deserving credit for the league’s newfound popularity. Then Charles Barkley’s comments about WNBA players being “petty” over Clark’s success, did not go down well with Reese either. Now, Outkick’s celebrated journalist Chad Withrow feels that this feeling of being sidelined and criticized often can drive Reese to emulate NBA great Michael Jordan.

During his conversation with Jonathan Hutton, Withrow brought up how Angel Reese is close with Shaquille O’Neal and that she called him after Barkley’s comments back in May. Revealing Shaq’s advice to the Chicago Sky star, Withrow compared her to MJ.

Chad Withrow compares Angel Reese to “sensitive” Michael Jordan

Reese was one of the stars who took offense to Barkley’s comments and called up Shaquille O’Neal as to why he didn’t address Barkley’s comments on the show. On the June 13 edition of The Big Podcast, Shaq recalled, “I have to call (Reese) to tell her ‘stop reading comments.'”

Shaq then revealed why didn’t he interrupt Barkley on the show and pointed out why Reese could be successful. “You don’t owe an explanation to anybody. … Cause she jumped on me. ‘Why you say nothing to Charles?’ Cause first of all, you know Charles takes up the segment and I didn’t have time to say anything, but I talked to him afterward. And the ones that are real sensitive are the ones that are more dominant,” he said.

Bringing this ordeal up on the Outkick, Withrow said, “Michael Jordan was really sensitive to criticism, right? He used that as a fire that burned within him. He used slights whether perceived, fake, real whatever to fuel what he was doing. Angel Reese kind of seems like the same to me. But she really took this personally when Charles Barkley went off about WNBA players not even mentioning her by name.”

Indeed, Barkley didn’t mention Reese by name, yet the Chicago Sky star was unhappy with how the rest of the players were labeled “petty.” Reese has often found herself receiving criticism over how she carries herself and Withrow’s suggestion that she will have a point to prove like the Chicago Bulls icon isn’t off the mark.

In the Last Dance documentary, we saw  Jordan tell the story of how Seattle Supersonics coach George Karl walked by him in a restaurant and didn’t acknowledge him. This was right before the 1996 NBA Finals, where the Bulls would play the Sonics. “That’s all I needed,” Jordan said to his dining companion Ahmad Rashad. The result? The Bulls won the series four games to two that year as Jordan exuded dominance.

Who can forget when MJ dropped a career-high 69 points against the Cavs motivated by how the crowd treated him? On 28 March 1990, the Bulls played a buoyant Cavs said, who roughed up Jordan. During one such physical play he fell to the floor and the crowd cheered. This angered Jordan and he took it all out on the Cavs as he scored a staggering 69 points 18 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals leading his side to a 117-113 OT win.

Could we see something similar from Reese in her WNBA career? Well, she could do a lot worse than walk in the footsteps of one of the greats of the sport.

Meanwhile, the Clark-Reese saga from their college days has carried into the WNBA. While Clark has been credited with bringing more eyeballs to women’s basketball, Reese believes that the WNBA’s rise in popularity isn’t down to just the former Iowa Hawkeyes player.

Speaking to the media on 5 June, Reese said, “I’ll look back in 20 years and be like, ‘Yeah, the reason we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me too, and I want you all to realize that.”

Perhaps, it is this anger that drove Reese to break Candace Parker’s consecutive double-double record. She registered her 13th consecutive double-double for the Chicago Sky, claiming 17 points and 14 rebounds as Sky fell to an 84-71 defeat to Seattle Storm on June 7. Plus, Reese is also the frontrunner for the Rookie of the Year award.

But what exactly did Barkley say that added fuel to the already heated-up rivalry between Clark and Reese?

Charles Barkley taunted WNBA stars

Caitlin Clark has been at the receiving end of some rough play by the opposition ever since her arrival in the league. As some of the veterans subjected the Indiana Fever star to physical play, it didn’t sit well with Charles Barkley.

Before the Dallas Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves game in late May, Barkley had come forward to applaud Clark for her success. He also used the platform to call out other WNBA players for hating on Clark. He said, “You women out there, y’all petty, man.” Barkley also supported LeBron James expounding that “LeBron, you’re 100% right on these girls hatin’ on Caitlin Clark.”

Furthermore, Barkley took his argument a notch by stating that “Y’all should be thanking that girl for getting y’all a*s private charters,” as per People. Notably, since this season, the W officials are ready to invest $50 million over the next 2 years to arrange for private planes for the WNBA stars, something that was not the norm before.

It is comments such as these that are driving Reese. With Caitlin Clark being a focus most of the time, Reese is determined to turn the tides in her favor and so far she is proving that she deserves an equal amount of attention as her former collegiate rival.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.