Kareem Abdul-Jabbar responds to criticism of Angel Reese

Legendary UCLA and NBA center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has come to the defense of LSU star Angel Reese. Reese has received criticism for her celebrations toward the end of the national championship against Iowa April 2.

Abdul-Jabbar responded in his latest Substack newsletter and pointed out a tweet from Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. Portnoy called Reese “classless” for pointing at her ring finger and doing the “you can’t see me” gesture toward Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who also did the “you can’t see me” during the Elite Eight.

Abdul-Jabbar defended Reese for her celebration and pointed to the competitive nature of the game as part of his reasoning.

“These players are kids in their teens and early twenties,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “So far, their trash talk has been pretty tame. Unless it stoops to racism or misogyny, then a few hand gestures or even finger gestures in such high-powered, high-stakes competition isn’t a big deal. It certainly isn’t worthy of the cruel criticism toward a Black player when the White player she directed it toward had done the same gesture the previous week. In fact, Caitlin Clark has defended Reese.

“Portnoy’s peevish comment would merely be silly based on what happened, but he’s elevated it to racist based on who he directed it at—and who he didn’t.”

As Abdul-Jabbar wrote, Clark defended Reese during an appearance on SportsCenter. The National Player of the Year said she didn’t think Reese deserve the criticism she received and expressed her respect for the LSU star.

“I don’t think Angel should be criticized at all,” Clark told Jeremy Schapp. “No matter which way it goes, she should never be criticized for what she did. I’m just one that competes and she competed. I think everybody knew there was going to be a little trash talking the entire tournament. It’s not just me and Angel. So I don’t think she should be criticized, like I said. LSU deserves it. They played so well. Like I said, I’m a big fan of hers.”

LSU won the game 102-87 over Iowa to bring the program’s first-ever national championship back home to Baton Rouge. Reese was named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player for her performance, which included 15 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals in the victory over the Hawkeyes in Dallas.

During the tournament, Reese saw her On3 NIL Valuation soar, coming in at $1.3 million in the latest update Tuesday morning as her social media following tripled to nearly 3.6 million since the Final Four, as On3’s Pete Nakos reported.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.