“We’ll see Michelle. We’ll see Barack.”
We can put Caitlin Clark on the backburner for now, because Angel Reese vs. first lady Jill Biden is fast becoming the wildest beef in sports. Earlier this week Reese took exception to comments from the first lady that both LSU and Iowa should visit the White House, bucking championship tradition. A move the first lady has since apologized for. Now Reese is suggesting that the Tigers should just ignore the presidential visit all together and go hang with Barack and Michelle Obama.
Reese sat down with the “paper route” podcast, hosted by Brandon Marshall and Ashley Nicole Moss of IAMATHLETE to discuss winning the National Championship, how Reese and Clark are pushing the game forward, and the racism LSU has experienced this season with people calling her team “too hood” and “too ghetto” because they’re a predominantly black team. Naturally the conversation turned to Jill Biden, and Reese didn’t hold back.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t accept the apology because of, you said what you said. I said what I said. And like, you can’t go back on certain things that you say. I mean, you felt like they should’ve came because of sportsmanship, right? They can have that spotlight. We’ll go to the Obamas. We’ll see Michelle. We’ll see Barack.”
Reese pointed out that when San Diego State lost to UConn in the men’s National Championship there weren’t overtures that SDSU should visit the White House as well — pointing out the lingering disparities between the perception of men’s and women’s basketball.
According to Reese LSU is fully prepared to skip a White House visit. She said that the team were group texting following Biden’s comments and insulted by the suggestion Iowa would join them. Reese went on to say that LSU coach Kim Mulkey told them to wait it out, and after numerous calls between the school and the White House, Jill Biden apologized.
This is surely going to ruffle some feathers, but Reese is being true to herself. Obviously the idea of having the Tiger visit the White House wasn’t given a lot of respect, so why should respect be given in return?
We’re going to have to see how this plays out, because I don’t think anyone had this on their March Madness bingo card.
