Angel Reese 'not the villain' in Caitlin Clark narrative, Jemele Hill says amid growing WNBA rivalry

LeSean McCoy reacts to Angel Reese's reaction to Caitlin Clark's flagrant foul. The Indiana Fever defeated the Chicago Sky, 93-58.

The Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark rivalry has another chapter closed after the WNBA found that claims of hateful speech toward Reese by Indiana Fever fans were "not substantiated."

The two young phenoms have been tied at the hip since they faced off in the 2023 national championship game, where Reese's LSU Tigers defeated Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes, and in the closing moments, Reese hit Clark with a "you can't see me" taunt.

It was a move that Clark took in good fun, saying Reese should not have been "criticized at all" and pointing at the nature of competitiveness.

But after a flagrant foul by Clark against Reese on Saturday, all the prior talk from each athlete about a lack of a rivalry seemed to falter.

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Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese (Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images)

However, former ESPN host Jemele Hill said fans are looking too deep into Reese and Clark, even if they do actually "hate each other."

"This is ultimately a conversation about cultural competency. Angel Reese’s very existence rubs a lot of people the wrong way. No one knows for sure how she feels about Caitlin Clark, but what we do know from Angel Reese’s own public comments is that she feels a way that she isn’t given more credit for how she also has added to the popularity of women’s basketball in this moment," Hill said in a YouTube video on her channel in a segment called "Spolotics."

Hill also said Black athletes are more often "portrayed negatively by the media" than White athletes.

"If Black athletes are confident, they're considered