As Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream faced Golden State in the WNBA Finals, some of the coverage made it sound as if they were representing Black America.
An Oct. 24 Swish Appeal column connected Atlanta’s enthusiasm for the Dream to the city’s history of “Black excellence, resistance and pride.” It quoted a historian who linked the team to Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of the “Beloved Community.”
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There’s nothing wrong with a city seeing its history and culture reflected in its sports teams. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ name and logo celebrate the steel industry that helped define their city. It’s perfectly reasonable for Atlanta fans to find a similar connection between the Dream and their own community.
The problem arises when supporting a player becomes a test of racial loyalty, or criticizing her becomes an attack on the people she supposedly represents.
I encountered plenty of that while covering Angel Reese during the Finals. People who disagreed with my questions and columns decided the explanation was that I had a problem with Black women. Somehow, evaluating one basketball player had become a statement about millions of people I wasn’t writing about.
But this fits a much larger pattern involving Reese and Caitlin Clark. For some fans and commentators, they have become stand-ins for Black America and White America. Their successes and shortcomings get recruited into arguments about privilege, discrimination and whose achievements deserve recognition.
But Clark and Reese have responded very differently to those roles.
When pressed, Clark has pushed back against people using her name to promote racial agendas but has repeatedly emphasized that basketball is her job.
Reese made race part of the conversation in 2023
In the closing moments of LSU’s 2023 national championship victory over Iowa, Angel Reese followed Caitlin Clark around the court, repeatedly taunting Iowa’s star player. She made the “you can’t see me” gesture, then pointed to her ring finger.
Many people, myself included, took issue with Reese’s taunts. Predictably, commentators, including ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, framed the backlash as a racial double standard, pointing to Clark’s use of the same gesture earlier in the tournament.
Of course, there’s a clear difference between doing a gesture toward your own bench and following an opponent around the court and doing it in her face, but the nuance was lost on many.
Even one of the Louisville players, Hailey Van Lith, later explained that Clark’s gesture was directed at Iowa’s strength coach, not anyone on the Cardinals team.
But Reese had already made it about race herself, right there at the postgame podium.
After a reporter asked Reese about the outrage on Twitter surrounding her celebration, Reese claimed she was labeled as “too hood” and “too ghetto.” She continued by saying the victory was for “the girls that look like me” and declared, “It was bigger than me tonight.”
Imagine Clark saying a championship was for “girls that look like me.” I don’t believe the same commentators defending Reese would applaud that message from Clark.
Reese has continued to cast herself as a voice for young Black people
In an August 2025 Forbes interview about her signature shoe, Reese described being “a visual and a voice for young Black women.” Discussing people who shared her experiences, she added, “I’m speaking for those people, young girls, young boys.”
Reese has also made it clear that she wants to be known for more than basketball.
“It’s always been both: basketball and fashion,” she told Vogue in 2025. She’s also made appearances at the Met Gala in each of the past three years.
Good for her. She’s built a following and figured out how to make money from it. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it doesn’t mean she doesn’t care about winning.
But Reese has spent years talking about race and positioning herself as a voice for Black women. So when some of her defenders treat criticism of her as an attack on all Black women, they aren’t making that connection entirely on their own.
An officiating complaint became another racial controversy
During a July game against Atlanta, Toronto coach Sandy Brondello complained to officials after a foul call involving Reese and Nyara Sabally. The broadcast picked up Brondello describing Reese as a “protected species.”
Brondello is Australian. As Australia’s ABC explained, that expression is commonly used in Australian sports to complain about players receiving favorable treatment from officials. It had nothing to do with Reese’s race.
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Brondello apologized anyway and explained that her frustration was with the officiating. The WNBA suspended her for one game, and Reese accepted the apology, thanked the league for acting and said there was “no place for discrimination or hate.”
Reese then went further: “I speak for a community that believes in the bigger picture of things.”
Brondello was arguing about a foul call, but Reese used the moment to talk about discrimination. Once again, the racial framing was coming from Reese herself.
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Caitlin Clark has rejected the role others assign her
Clark has been pulled into these arguments, too.
In June 2024, she was asked about people using her name in broader cultural debates. “Basketball is my job,” she said, explaining that she couldn’t control what others said online.
Even that answer became a controversy. WNBA player DiJonai Carrington claimed people were using Clark’s name to justify bigotry and accused Clark of not being bothered by it.
“Silence is a luxury,” Carrington wrote.
Later that day, asked specifically about racism and misogyny, Clark said, “People should not be using my name to push those agendas.”
In both instances, it was the WNBA media prodding Clark to make a statement about racial animosity, not something Clark brought up on her own. Instead, Clark tried to keep her focus on basketball. Of course, that didn’t satisfy the media or WNBA players demanding that Clark answer for online trolls.
See, that’s the bigger issue here. There’s an expectation that Clark must be accountable for people she neither controls nor authorizes to speak for her. The same principle applies to Reese; neither player is responsible for policing every account that claims to support her.
In her December 2024 TIME interview, Clark said, “I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege.”
I believe Clark felt pressured to make that statement after all the grief she’d taken for trying to keep the focus on basketball. When staying out of the argument gets you criticized, there’s pressure to give people the statement they’ve been demanding.
And it didn’t end with her rookie season. As I recently documented, the demands have continued through all three of Clark’s WNBA seasons.
During a podcast appearance in July 2025, Nancy Armour acknowledged that Clark had already addressed the subject, including in her TIME interview. But Armour wanted a stronger statement, delivered on Clark’s own initiative instead of in response to a question.
In October 2026, podcaster Charlotte Wilder said that despite Clark addressing online trolls multiple times, Clark needed to say “something a little more forceful.”
Then, at her October 2026 season-ending news conference, Clark was asked about Kelsey Mitchell’s comments on the treatment she receives as a Fever player. Clark again rejected people using her name to promote racism, hate or discrimination.
Three seasons into her WNBA career, Clark is still being asked to explain that she doesn’t support racism. How many more statements are required?
The players are more complicated than the roles
Reese helped Atlanta reach the Finals, and she deserves credit for that. But she also deserves criticism for her poor performances over the final four games. Treating her as an individual leaves room for both.
The same goes for Clark. Her performances and public comments are fair game. But some troll calling himself a fan doesn’t make her responsible for whatever he posts online. And the media doesn’t get to assign her that job.
The players themselves have also complicated the idea that they are permanent personal enemies.
During September’s FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, Reese also spoke positively about playing alongside Clark and developing their chemistry as USA teammates.
After they won gold together, Clark was asked whether she and Reese were friends now.
“We’ve always been friends,” she responded. “Don’t try to do that.”
They can compete against each other, talk trash and still function perfectly well on the same team. And fans don’t have to like them equally.
What I reject is the demand to choose a racial allegiance along with a favorite player.
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Admiring Clark’s game doesn’t make someone hostile to Black women. Supporting Reese doesn’t require someone to dismiss every legitimate criticism of her. Their accomplishments belong to them, and so do their mistakes.
Neither gets to stand in for an entire race, and neither should be forced to.
Root for whoever you want. Just stop making it a racial loyalty test.
