Wow. What a disrespectful, narcissistic, rude and entitled athlete. Now let’s see if anyone has the guts and integrity to tell her she’s completely in the wrong. My bet: Nah.
LSU beat Iowa for the women’s national championship over the weekend. First Lady Jill Biden, ESPN reported, was in attendance at the decisive game and praised Iowa’s sportsmanship. “I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House; we always do. So we hope LSU will come,” Dr. Jill said. “But, you know, I’m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”
OK, the tradition is for the President to invite the winning team in such situations, so suggesting that the losing team deserved an invite to was a bit naive. But truly: big deal. Never mind: LSU star Angel Reese decided that it was justification to blow a gasket and throw a tantrum. Later, someone told Jill that this wasn’t the way it was done, and the First Lady had her press secretary “walk back” and spin the first lady’s comments, saying they “were intended to applaud the historic game and all women athletes. She looks forward to celebrating the LSU Tigers on their championship win at the White House.” In other words, she didn’t mean what she said, when obviously, at the time, she did.
A gracious, mature individual who knows that our elected leaders and their family members deserve to be accorded a bit more generosity and respect in general and be given some consideration and empathy when they make gaffes than the family next door that gets drunk and parties all night would have left the matter at that, but not Angel, who told a podcast,
“I don’t accept the apology because you said what you said You can’t go back on certain things that you say. You felt like [Iowa] should have came because of sportsmanship, right? They can have that spotlight.We’ll go to the Obamas’ [home]. We’ll see Michelle. We’ll see Barack.”
For good measure, just in case she hadn’t already proven what a mega-jerk she is, Reese suggested that Jill was a bigot. “I just know if the roles were reversed it wouldn’t be the same. If we were to lose, we would not be getting invited to the White House,” Reese said.
Ah. The women’s basketball team at LSU is predominantly black, while Iowa’s squad is predominantly white. Must be racism then. Good point, Angel!
LSU should require Reese to apologize to the First Lady. The White House should require such an apology as a condition of the team being feted at the White House. If the apology isn’t forthcoming, then the White House should invite the losing Iowa team. If they understand sportsmanship, they understand how to conduct oneself when interacting with the President and First Lady.
None of this will happen, of course. Reese will get away with her arrogant, miserable conduct, and worse, be praised for it as the Bidens grovel for forgiveness.
Yecchh.
Ethics Alarms 
I am not sure at what point something becomes a train wreck but this series could be in that territory.
When, I saw Reese, I thought you were going to address the PREVIOUS controversy, which might have precipitated Biden’s goof.
I was completely prepared to pontificate on THAT controversy.
This is a whole new twist.
-Jut
I was looking forward to the write up on that issue too. Please, pontificate on it for my sake. As I have multiple sock drawers to unravel (no really, my kids sock drawers are horrible) and three weeks of grading to catch up on, I have not dedicated myself to adequate research for an informed opinion. My uninformed mind would love to hear your more informed take.
Sarah B.
Okay, this is my inadequate re-cap.
I don’t follow the Women’s Basketball tournament. Nonetheless, I am not blind and deaf. Things seep into my consciousness.
This year, there have been a number of incidences that have crept into my line of sight.
https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/memphis-player-charged-after-punching-bowling-green-player-in-handshake-line-following-womens-nit-matchup/
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/louisville-womens-basketball-star-tense-altercation-texas-player-win
So, Reese popped into my view with respect to Iowa State player Clark:
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/03/1167704651/angel-reese-caitlin-clark-you-cant-see-me-gesture
This was Reese’s first entry into controversy (I think). Apparently, Clark, whom Reese mocked, had previously acted like a jerk:
https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/big-ten/john-cena-gives-shoutout-caitlin-clark-after-viral-celebration
[This is where my interest wanes.]
Reese was criticized for taunting Clark, whose Hawkeyes had pulled out a surprising victory (?) over your Lady Cocks (nothing transgender, just your South Carolina Lady Gamecocks (Oh, so many micro aggressions there!)).
The race hustlers claimed (perhaps accurately) that Reese, a black woman, was condemned for the exact same behavior that the white woman Clark could do without criticism.
Apparently, some defenders of Clark said that Clark was shit-talking DURING the game, whereas Reese was shit-talking during the hand-shake line after the game.
Reese’s defenders cried racist double-standards and parsing because white people would give Clark a pass for behavior during a game but condemn Reese for the same behavior after the game.
[I think that is a fair distinction. The whole point of the handshake line is that, after the game is over, you show sportsmanship. [Is SportsMAN ship a microaggression?] Afternoon the game is over, the handshake line is the place to be good losers and good winners.]
I don’t know if Clark violated that rule; it appears Reese did.
This gave rise to accusations of double-standards. On what basis? Race, of course. I don’t know quite enough to opine intelligently on that. There has been a lot of bad behavior in this tournament (often in the handshake line). the incidents I have seen (above) have been black women against white women. I don’t know if these are representative, because I have not followed the tournament. There could be bias in coverage.
But, it appears Clark and Van Lith tried to downplay these disputes.
At any rate, Reese has gotten a lot of crap for her behavior. [I joked that no one appreciated that Reese gave Clark the “I can’t see you” hand gesture, and Clark claimed she did not see it.]
So, in that context, where Reese is getting crap (justifiably or not) for “dissing” Clark, Biden’s “unorthodox” (stupid?) decision to invite Iowa to the White House in the midst of a racially-charged rivalry seems even more tone deaf than you would get by pounding on Joe’s cranium like one would a bongo or steel drum (without the pleasant sounds, of course).
Hope this helps.
-Jut
I was aware of that controversy, but it seemed too trivial even for me.
Now I’m sorry my family ever owned her family. (AFAIK, that’s not a true thing; I’m just being a jerk, too. But if she’s gonna be a race-grievance junkie, that could give her something real to run with instead.)
Well, I think it is a little more complicated than that.
But, that does not mean it might be any less silly.
There is a big backdrop to this controversy and, fortunately or not, my ability to care has likely reached its breaking point.
I mean, come on, it’s Women’s College Basketball. Now, give me a good Curling controversy and you can’t help but take notice.
-Jut
While I agree with you about how people with class and grace SHOULD behave, Reese’s behavior seems to be right in line with the woke culture the Dem party has aligned itself to. I have a hard time feeling bad for the Biden’s when the toxic culture his party embraces turns around and bites him in the ass.
She’s bullet proof. The angry black woman stereotype/myth is a white supremacist construct. She’s entitled to act however the hell she wants with impunity.
I played basketball from seventh through eleventh grades (whereupon I tore up my knee, but no big deal, I’d stopped growing at 6’1″). I don’t remember ever, ever hearing any trash talking. Of course, this was mostly pre-integration. But even when we played teams with black guys and even one entirely black school, everyone was too busy trying to play the game to have any interest in trash talk.
When it is woke dem on woke dem crime, my natural inclination is to pop some popcorn.
Yeah. I agree. Some popcorn sounds good!
Gee, I can’t imagine how Reese got the idea that slamming the First Lady and accusing the White House of racism was appropriate conduct.
The best way to deal with this is to stop inviting teams during his term and explain why. Then her teammates will deal with her antics.
Hard to blame this POS for acting like that when:
1) the Dems/lefties have created and nurtured this sense of entitlement and sense of invincibility when spewing out accusations of racism, no matter how baseless or outlandish, and while exhibiting the very thing they are supposedly complaining about it,
2) the Obama, especially Michelle, made it clear that they prioritize their blackness over anything else,
3) the Obamas treat the Biden with such obvious condescension, contempt, and disrespect.
Ultimately, this couldn’t have happened to more deserving couple. I would’ve outraged before the Dems showed that they don’t believe in “respect the office” thingy
On my word as a Biden, don’t believe anything I say until the staff clarify what I actually said and that Extreme MAGA Republicans & the previous administration is faulted for any misunderstandings.