Ryan Clark rips Robert Griffin III for attacking Angel Reese, claims he's pandering to Caitlin Clark hype

After a heated exchange between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese in the Indiana Fever’s 93-58 win over the Chicago Sky on Saturday, FOX Sports’ Robert Griffin III claimed Reese “hates” Clark. On the latest episode of The Pivot Podcast, Ryan Clark chastised Griffin for his accusation.

“RGIII saying he could recognize ‘hate when ‘he’ see(s) it,’ when referring to Angel Reese’s feelings toward Caitlin Clark was irresponsible, but not at all surprising,” Clark wrote on X. “Clark’s the biggest star in women’s basketball, & deservedly so. No need to beat up Reese to add shine to it.

“RGIII plays into the narrative that Reese is the villain of Clark’s hero origin story. Now, Oberman & Portnoy, who berated Reese in college, have an ally in Griffin. Add him to the list of black men who’ve adopted the corny trend of denigrating black women to affirm their choices.

“Attacking Reese multiple times in order to gain favor from his desired crowd won’t help RGII blend in more. ‘Echoing the micro aggressions of racist won’t make him any less black than me.'”

Reese took exception when Clark committed a Flagrant 1 foul on her in the third quarter of the fiery showdown. Reese went after Clark but was ultimately blocked from getting to her by Fever center Aliyah Boston. Reese and Boston were each assessed technical fouls.

This is far from the first time Clark and Reese have butted heads. The pair have been going at it since their college days. Robert Griffin III believes the rivalry has become personal for Reese.

“I know what hatred looks like,” Griffin said, via Awful Announcing. “Angel Reese hates Caitlin Clark. Not some basketball rivalry hate, either. The reason I said that is because when somebody that you don’t like says something to you, you automatically always take it to the most extreme. You always automatically say, ‘Oh, they meant to harm me with that statement.’ But, if your friend or somebody you’re cool with made that very same statement, none of us would be so quick to run to judgment to say, ‘Oh, that was negative.’ We would question what it was. We would react differently.

“So why do I think Angel Reese hates Cailtin Clark? It could be the fact that Aliyah Boston had to save Angel Reese from ending her career… After the foul, Caitlin Clark put on Angel Reese, and Angel Reese tried to hit her. But if it wasn’t for Aliyah Boston putting her arms in the way, Angel Reese would not be playing basketball anymore, because she was going to sucker punch Caitlin Clark. Now, you tell me a time when you’ve seen somebody get fouled on a basketball court in a professional league, where they try to almost sucker punch somebody that they were friends with, because of a hard foul?”