The entire basketball world’s attention is on the college basketball circuit, especially the women’s competition. Apart from witnessing some of the greatest women’s college basketball players entertaining fans at the NCAA March Madness, fans also had to learn the unfortunate pressure and hate that Angel Reese has had to deal with over the past year. What caused an outrage was Emmanuel Acho demanded the LSU star accept her defeat like a professional. To Acho’s response, Matt Barnes came to Reese’s defense, ripping apart the Fox Sports analyst’s “gender neutral” take.
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Following the LSU Tigers’ 87-94 Elite Eight loss against the Caitlin Clark-led Iowa Hawkeyes, Angel Reese wore her heart on her sleeve as she opened up about all the threats she has been subjected to since winning the 2023 National Championship. While people were showing empathy and support to the WNBA prospect, Emmanuel Acho had a different opinion after seeing the latter’s emotional press conference incident.
The former NFL player asked Reese to act like a professional. Acho even captioned his “gender neutral” take – “In sports, you can’t act like the big bad wolf, then cry like courage the cowardly dog.”
Immediately, the sporting world stood up for Angel. Matt Barnes was merely one of the many esteemed personalities to get his opinions on Acho’s take. Taking to Instagram, Barnes respectfully disagreed with the analyst’s take.
Barnes began his rant by stating that the media made Angel Reese the villain and to the latter’s credit, she “ran with it”. However, since it was her last game playing for the LSU Tigers, she merely opened up about the struggles she went through.
“The media made Angel Reese the villain, just like they made Caitlin Clark the American sweetheart… I think she ran with the title… So she’s like ‘f**k it, they’re going to try to use it against me and I’m going to use it to my benefit… But if you think about it Acho, it’s her last college game. She’s going to the league, so she got a great run at LSU, captivated the world, helped change really the viewership in women’s basketball… So of course after a tough loss she’s gonna kind of reflect and be emotional,” Barnes said.
After claiming that her talents were undebatable, the 2017 NBA champ claimed that Reese was being criticized for anything that she did. Further, the 44-year-old concluded by pointing out the difference in treatment that the men get for being emotional after a game.
“But I think the one think you cannot debate is her game and the numbers she puts up and her talent. And it’s weird that everyone has an issue with her talking sh*t or her even crying in the post press conference, but don’t talk enough about her game I feel. Like she’s damned if she does, damned if she don’t. She gets criticized for talking sh*t, she gets criticized for crying,” Barnes concluded his rant.
Barnes couldn’t have said it better. Being emotional after a tough loss resulted in Angel speaking her heart out. However, that doesn’t imply that she’s not accepting defeat like a professional.
Like Matt Barnes, even Taylor Rooks defended Angel Reese from Emmanuel Acho
Taylor Rooks was amongst the first ones from the sporting community to react to Emmanuel Acho’s take. Reposting the clip of Acho’s comments, Rooks explained how she disagreed with her co-host.
In a lengthy paragraph that she wrote, the 31-year-old highlighted the systemic discrimination that black women often faced. The sports journalist also refuted Acho’s take by stating that the latter was proving the points that he claimed to fight. Among other topics, Rooks also spoke about the villainization of the forward and how she deserved to express her feelings about the same.
Irrespective of what people think about her, Angel Reese is extremely strong for performing well – averaging 18.6 points and 13.4 rebounds, per ESPN, and leading her team to the Elite Eight – despite being threatened on a regular basis.
Truly, one can expect the youngster to shine bright on the professional stage that she will begin merely a few months from now.
