Angel Reese says ‘irritating’ drama with Caitlin Clark overshadowed LSU’s championship

The LSU girls’s basketball group lived out a dream final month once they gained the nationwide championship over Iowa.

However, with the championship got here a lot controversy with Angel Reese’s celebrations in the direction of the tip of the ultimate recreation.

Reese, now infamously, signaled that she was getting a championship ring and, like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, pulled off John Cena’s “You Can’t See Me” celebration.

Reese was known as a “classless piece of s–t” by Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy, amongst different adverse connotations within the midst of her best athletic achievement and one of many best milestones of her complete life.

LSU’s Angel Reese reacts in entrance of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark throughout the second half of the NCAA Women’s Final Four championship basketball recreation Sunday, April 2, 2023, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

“It was irritating,” Reese mentioned on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” earlier this week.

However, regardless of the backlash she bought, there was a particularly vibrant mild on the finish of the tunnel.

“To see how we’ve grown girls’s basketball with a pair weeks, 9.9 million individuals watched the sport. That’s greater than the boys’s. I do know someday we’re happening within the historical past books, so it’s greater than me,” she continued.

However, Reese did admit that it could have been good for extra individuals to rejoice the Tigers’ accomplishments moderately than bask within the controversy surrounding her and Clark.

“I’m so pleased that we gained the championship. I want it was extra talked about. As a lot as they talked concerning the Caitlin state of affairs, I wished to speak concerning the nationwide championship, as a result of we labored simply as onerous. We put numerous sweat and tears into that championship and folks don’t notice that. It’s not straightforward to win a championship. So to have the ability to try this, it’s the very best of each worlds. I’m pleased the state of affairs occurred, however on the similar time I’m a nationwide champion, and I’m getting a hoop.”

Angel Reese, #10 of the LSU Lady Tigers, reacts in the direction of Caitlin Clark, #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes, throughout the fourth quarter throughout the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament championship recreation at American Airlines Center on April 2, 2023, in Dallas, Texas. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

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Reese’s teammates echoed her sentiments.

“It simply grew the sport, and I used to be pleased to be part of it and be a nationwide champion on the similar time. You can’t complain about an excessive amount of after that,” added Flau’Jae Johnson.

Reese later added that she and Clark haven’t any “beef” and that “individuals do not realize” that they “are cool,” saying that any feud between them had been blown approach out of proportion.

Clark herself mentioned that Reese ought to have obtained no criticism.

“You ought to be capable to play with that emotion. That’s what makes it so enjoyable,” Clark mentioned final month. “Nobody needs to tune in and never see individuals be aggressive and passioned about what they’re doing throughout any sport. That’s the way it needs to be…

Angel Reese, #10 of the LSU Lady Tigers, smiles in celebration after defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes throughout the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament National Championship at American Airlines Center on April 2, 2023, in Dallas, Texas. (C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos by way of Getty Images)

“I do not suppose Angel needs to be criticized in any respect,” Clark additionally mentioned. “No matter what approach it goes, she ought to by no means be criticized for what she did. I’m only one that competes, and he or she competed. It was an excellent, tremendous enjoyable recreation. I believe that is what is going on to carry extra individuals to our recreation.”