There’s no doubting that Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese is among the most polarizing athletes in North America right now. She’s either loved or hated. Rarely is anyone sitting on the fence. But no matter what you think of her, there’s no denying that she’s on an absolute roll on the hardwood right now.
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Generally known as a rebounder (arguably the best in the game currently), Reese has also been scoring the basketball really well. She’s actually top five in points per game since June 24 — a span of seven games during which she’s averaged 18.7 points to go with her league-leading rebounding numbers. And before anyone asks what her shooting percentage has been during this stretch, it’s just over 50 percent.
Unfortunately, despite her excellent run of basketball, paired with the announcement that Reese will grace the cover of the WNBA edition of the 2K26 video game, much of the recent rhetoric about her has swirled around two NFL pundits: Robert Griffin III and Ryan Clark.
And as fellow former NFLer Marcellus Wiley pointed out, the war of words between the two men has left Reese as “kind of collateral damage.”
“The way to really demystify it, and clarify it all, is just to ask yourself two questions: how black or how whack? That’s what it seems like. They’re just really having a jousting session. And it’s more the guys, Ryan [Clark] and RG3, but the point is, Angel Reese is kind of collateral damage in this. Because she’s the brand, she’s the product, she’s the one on the court.”
RG3 and Clark have been getting into it over the airwaves for a few weeks now. Most recently, RG3 shared a post depicting Angel Reese as a monkey (which we didn’t see posted anywhere else) with the message that racism had no place in sports debates. He then went on to kind of call Reese out. According to him, his previous criticisms of her resulted in death threats and threats of sexual violence against RG3’s family.
It was very peculiar. It seemed like RG3 dug up that insane image of Reese as a monkey just so he could pretend to have her back while actually calling her out. RG3 claims that people in Reese’s “inner circle” told him specifically that Reese hated her rival, Caitlin Clark. That did nothing but stir the pot even further and create more antipathy towards Reese.
Reese has denied his claim. In response, she tweeted: “lying on this app when everybody know the first and last name of everybody in my circle for clout is nastyyyy work.” Her mom also jumped to her defense, clowning RG3 for his attempt at farming clicks using Angel Reese’s name.
Man stop with the 🧢 My daughter's "circle" is so small & tight so I'd be interested 2 know who called U 🤔 Whomever U say "called" U is not in her circle 2 speak on her feelings towards a media/fandom made up beef. Just stay on that side bc the doors are closed over here
— AngelReese(TheMom) (@awebbreese) July 10, 2025
Ryan Clark, for his part, responded similarly. He said RG3 had a “strange fascination with Angel Reese” and accused him of lambasting the young hooper just to bring himself the spotlight.
“RG3 has a strange fascination with Angel Reese, or a connection to that spotlight it brings him… but this one was easy. He posted a graphic I didn’t see anywhere else of Angel as a Monkey. Just say, ‘That’s wrong!’ He pointed out that Angel hurt him, & then lied on her to inner circle. RG says you’re wrong if you don’t support people don’t look like you, but you’re also wrong if you never support people that do look like you.”
We would have to agree with everything Ryan Clark is saying. But at the same time, he—along with RG3—must end the petty back-and-forth. They should get back to the more important topic at hand: Angel Reese is playing the best basketball of her young career. Or, they could just focus on football. That is their real area of expertise, after all.