ESPN Analyst Suggests RGIII Is Defending Caitlin Clark Because His Wife Is White

Alex Christy
May 21st, 2025 3:37 PM

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One sports rivalry that has managed to spill out into the broader political culture war is the one between the WNBA’s Caitlin Clark and Angela Reese. On a Monday episode of The Pivot podcast, ESPN talking head and former NFL safety Ryan Clark brought racial politics into the controversy by saying former colleague, NFL quarterback, and current Fox Sports analyst Robert Griffin III having a white wife makes his opinions invalid.

The genesis for the latest episode in the Clark-Reese rivalry was a flagrant foul Clark made on Reese to prevent an easy layup. Some thought, probably justifiably, that flagrant designation was a bit of overzealous refereeing. Either way, after the play, Reese got up and tried to go after Clark but was restrained by Clark’s teammates.  For her part, Clark simply walked away. Griffin posted on X, “After watching Caitlin Clark’s flagrant foul on Angel Reese and the aftermath, there is no way Angel Reese can continue the lie that she doesn’t dislike Caitlin Clark. I know what hatred looks like. Angel Reese HATES Caitlin Clark. Not some basketball rivalry hate either. Hate."

 

 

Griffin, who is black, has posted similar content about other WNBA players’ attitudes towards Clark in the past. The argument Griffin and others make is that there are people in the mostly black WNBA who are bitter that women’s basketball is experiencing historic levels of popularity because Clark, who broke multiple college basketball scoring records, is white.

With all that as context, Ryan Clark huffed, “Caitlin Clark is the most important player in the WNBA, and a ton of her fandom has come along with some racial bias or some racial pieces to why people love her so much. And so now, if you’re RGIII, when is the last time, within your household, you’ve had a conversation about what she's dealing with? You haven't been able to do that because in both of your marriages you've been married to a white woman.”

 

 

He continued, "You haven't had opportunities to have those conversations to educate you on what they're feeling, what black women deal with, what they're seeing when they think of a young Angel Reese, and the whole time that he's mimicking Angel Reese and bobbing his head and moving his neck while he's doing this whole piece, his wife is in the back amening and clapping."

Insisting he has no problems with Griffin’s wife, he still insisted that "it also leads to what black women deal with a lot from black men who have chose to date or marry outside of their race.  They always feel like they have to go the extra mile to prop up the women that they're married or the woman that they're with over black women by denigrating black women."

Despite the fact that he injected racial politics into the situation, Ryan Clark wondered why Caitlin Clark and Reese both can’t be seen as great players, “I feel like we should have an opportunity to move past that and understand that Angel Reese can be great in her own right as Caitlin Clark as well. Caitlin Clark is a likable and lovable superstar. She plays homage to the stars of the past, she pays homage to the black women that have come before her and now she is carrying the mantle forward.

So there's no need to pin those two against each other and paint them based on stereotypical tropes and and I think this is what I'd like RGIII to know: that no matter how much he continues to echo the microaggressions of racists, he'll be no less black than me."

Ryan Clark’s ideal solution, where people acknowledge that Reese and Caitlin Clark are two great players and there’s no need to turn basketball into a culture war, sounds nice, but it requires Reese to play along. On the same day as this podcast, she shared a TikTok that featured an X post of the aforementioned play that was captioned, “White gyal running away from the fade.”

Needless to say, if Caitlin Clark shared a social media post referring to Reese by her race, Ryan Clark would have a different hot take. 

Here is a transcript for the May 20 show: 

The Pivot

5/19/2025

RYAN CLARK: Caitlin Clark is the most important player in the WNBA, and a ton of her fandom has come along with some racial bias or some racial pieces to why people love her so much. And so now, if you’re RGIII, when is the last time, within your household, you’ve had a conversation about what she's dealing with? You haven't been able to do that because in both of your marriages you’ve been married to white women.

You haven't had opportunities to have those conversations to educate you on what they're feeling, what black women deal with, what they're seeing when they think of a young Angel Reese, and the whole time that he's mimicking Angel Reese and bobbing his head and moving his neck while he's doing this whole piece, his wife is in the back amenning and clapping. 

And so to me it's just another situation that now this young lady has to deal with. When I worked with RGIII, he would make all of these sorts of corny jokes about milk and how much he loved it and how important it was, and he always points out on social media, the color of his wife’s skin. As if the color of her skin is what makes her special, as if the color of her skin is what makes her a good wife.

I've met the lady, I've had a conversation with her. I think she's more than that, but it also leads towhat black women deal with a lot from black men who have chose to date or marry outside of their race. 

They always feel like they have to go the extra mile to prop up the woman that they're married or the woman that they're with over black women by denigrating black women. I feel like we should have an opportunity to move past that and understand that Angel Reese can be great in her own right as Caitlin Clark is as well. Caitlin Clark is a likable and lovable superstar. She plays homage to the stars of the past, she pays homage to the black women that have come before her and now she is carrying the mantle forward.

So there's no need to pin those two against each other and paint them based on stereotypical tropes and and I think this is what I'd like RGIII to know: that no matter how much he continues to echo the microaggressions of racists, he'll be no less black than me. 

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