Ryan Clark questions why Angel Reese has to be Caitlin Clark's villain

The great sports debate of the last week began around the rivalry between budding WNBA superstars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese but quickly devolved into a war-of-words between former ESPN and NFL teammates Ryan Clark and Robert Griffin III.

Griffin, who was recently hired by FOX Sports as a college football analyst, started the debate when he declared Reese “hates” Caitlin Clark following an on-court dust-up during last weekend’s season-opener between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever. In a Pivot video he posted to X/Twitter on Monday, Ryan Clark took exception and chastised his former Washington Redskins — now the Commanders — teammate for villainizing Reese. 

Ryan Clark’s point would ultimately be lost in the viral back-and-forth with Griffin, who blasted the veteran ESPN analyst for “personally attacking me and my family” over what Griffin described as a “sports opinion.” But during a 30-minute response video released Friday, in which Ryan Clark apologized to Griffin’s wife, Grete, for involving her in their social media feud, Clark doubled back to his original point and questioned why Reese — the former LSU superstar — must be denigrated and pigeonholed as the WNBA “villain” when discussed in relation to Cailtin Clark.

“It also doesn’t mean because you love Caitlin Clark, you can’t also respect Angel Reese. If you want to talk about her game and say they aren’t on the same level, that’s a conversation you can have. I think Caitlin Clark is on her way to being the face of the league after Aja Wilson is gone,” Ryan Clark said on Friday’s special response video on The Pivot Podcast. “I think Angel Reese is also a very important part of the league because of the effort she plays with, the star power she has away from the court is another reason people will tune into the WNBA. Because whether you like her or love her, or don’t like her or love her, you want to see what Angel Reese is going to do. And that’s good for a league that wants you to turn on the TV to see them.

“So why can’t we respect both ladies? Why can’t, if you’re African-American, you look at simply the skill set of Caitlin Clark and respect what she’s going to do, what she has done, without being a ‘coon,’ without being a sellout?” Ryan Clark concluded. “And why, if you loved Caitlin Clark and you aren’t a Black person, does Angel Reese have to be her villain? The two can co-exist individually and be good for the game collectively, if we let them. And moving forward, I’m going to let them.”

While the online feud between Ryan Clark and Robert Griffin III appears to have reached an end, the on-court battles between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese — both in just their second WNBA seasons — are just getting started. And, as Ryan Clark addressed, that’s great for the sport of women’s basketball, so long as it stays on the court and doesn’t involve fans and commentators denigrating one in favor of the other.