LSU’s Angel Reese recently had her say on the criticism Ja Morant received due to his ‘gun-shooting’ celebration that he did during the Memphis Grizzlies’ victory over the New Orleans Pelicans. The celebration, which happened on the eve of his return from a 25-game suspension, brought forth a similar one from Texas Longhorns’ Quinn Ewers.
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Following criticism for only one of the two for exactly the same celebration by outlets such as Barstool Sports, Angel Reese took to Twitter, to have her say. She reposted a tweet from Say Cheese! which talked about the different treatment Ewers has got, in comparison to Morant.
The celebration, apart from being linked by the media to Morant’s Instagram controversy, is also one that is regularly used by LSU players. Reese thought that the difference in treatment meted out to Morant in comparison to Ewers was comparable to the kind of treatment she received in response to her celebration, after taunting Caitlin Stark, during the 2023 NCAA Women’s Tournament Finals.
Reese had been criticized for using John Cena’s ‘You Can’t See Me’ gesture before pointing to her finger to indicate that her team was on its way to victory. “lol i’ve seen this before….” she wrote as a response to the comparison.
Earlier, she had already pointed out via a tweet how black players tend to be treated differently for doing the same things. “I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto. I don’t fit the narrative and I’m OK with that. I’m from Baltimore where you hoop outside and talk trash. If it was a boy y’all wouldn’t be saying nun at all. Let’s normalize women showing passion for the game instead of it being ’embarrassing.,” she had said, suggesting that different rules are often in play based on athletes’ genders.
Hence, Reese suggested a male player would not have been criticized for celebrating the way she did. This time around, she suggested that a white player would not have been criticized had he done what a black player, Ja Morant, did. As proof, she had Barstool Sports’ tweets, which she used to compare the captions posted for both celebrations.
A range of personalities supported Angel Reese during the controversy
Reese’s statements were not only linked to her own situation but also seemingly struck a chord with a range of other athletes and celebrities. For example, the Washington Mystics’ Natasha Cloud compared the situation to the different standards that exist for different communities,
“This is where we need our allies. I would love for our white counterparts who play to step up and say what it is. There’s a difference in how we perceive white and Black players passion for the game,” she had said.
The same was true for both Samuel L. Jackson and LeBron James, according to USA Today. The two also supported Reese and questioned the criticism that she continued to receive, on social media. Hence, while Cloud used the opportunity to compare the treatment of female players with racial stress, that was exactly what Reese alluded to, with regard to Ja Morant’s recent controversy.
