This year, something exploded in women’s sports-though it wasn’t the WNBA or soccer.

The 2023 woman’s March Madness final put woman’s basketball on the map. On Sunday, April 2, the Iowa Hawkeyes faced off against the LSU Tigers in a game that had drama, trash talk, and two stars willing to do anything to get their team the win. 

The stage was set for a final between the number 3-seeded LSU and the number 2-seeded Iowa. Before the game, there had been some statements sent back and forth between LSU center Angel Reese and Iowa point guard Caitlin Clark. The talking started after Caitlin’s game in the Elite Eight after she celebrated by hitting the ‘John Cena’ celebration in front of Louisville after a 41-point performance. This was soon followed by another 41-point outing against the number 1 seed South Carolina in a game where she waved off an opposing player as they stood behind the three-point line. 

This led to a back and forth on Twitter, in which Angel called Caitlin disrespectful for how she refused to play defense. Caitlin tried to downplay the situation saying that they’d prepared differently for LSU and that was just their game plan for South Carolina, but that didn’t seem to cool the situation down. During the game, it was clear that LSU was out to get Clark, as she ended the first half with only 19 points yet having three fouls. LSU continued the pressure, though it was evident that they weren’t able to contain Caitlin forever as she would score 11 more points-ending the game with 30 points. LSU would end up winning the game 102 to 85 but what happened in the moments before the score was final would send the sports world into a frenzy.

In the last few moments of the game, Angel Reese walked up to Caitlin Clark and imitated a celebration that she had done earlier in the tournament and then proceeded to walk around pointing to her ring finger. Though to many it is common to have taunting and trash talk in sports, especially in basketball, it seems that this is different. People took issue with Angel’s actions, as they seemed unsportsmanlike; while others thought that it wasn’t a big deal and that it comes with the game, especially due to the final’s competitive nature. 

Though Angel and Caitlin stayed quiet, people continued to come up with their own reasons as to why people would and wouldn’t be upset about the incident. The most common one was that it was because Angel was black and Caitlin was white. People thought that it was a race issue and that the reason why people were calling Angel classless and unsportsmanlike was that she’s black.

Though that could be true, it is very obvious in all levels of basketball especially in the U.S. that black men and women make up the vast majority, that isn’t to say that they don’t face adversity and discrimination-however, this incident does seem like a bit of a stretch.

What it does seem like is that people didn’t like Angel’s intent. Caitlin during all the drama leading up to the game had explained why she did what she did and why she said what she said, most of the time saying it was because she was in the moment and that it wasn’t directed toward anyone specific.

Angel, on the other hand, seemed to really take Caitlin’s actions to heart, as if she herself had been disrespected and pointed her celebration at Caitlin. It’s one thing to celebrate and talk trash back and forth, but when you go out of your way to get back at someone that hasn’t personally done anything to you, of course, it’s going to look bad. 

It also didn’t help that as things started to settle back down, Jill Biden wanted to invite both teams to the White House. For context, it is tradition that only the winning team goes; however, Jill thought that both teams played a great game and wanted both teams to come. Angel responded calling the gesture a joke and saying that she’d rather see Obama. This made people that already weren’t happy with Angel even more upset, as she came off as arrogant and dismissive as it’s one of the sport’s most coveted traditions.

However, through all the drama, no love was lost between Angel and Caitlin, as they have expressed nothing but respect for each other. Now that it seems that everything has calmed down, people are starting to appreciate what both of these athletes have done for women’s basketball during this one tournament.