Dave Portnoy didn’t hold back his comments about Angel Reese after losing for the second time to Caitlin Clark in the WNBA.
On Sunday, Reese and the Chicago Sky suffered a 91-83 loss to the Indiana Fever, with Clark’s 23-point performance, combined with nine assists and eight rebounds, leading the way. The loss was a rematch of their June 1 meeting, which Indiana won 71-70.
Although Reese had a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds, his play was highlighted with a flagrant 1 after hitting Clark in the head while driving to the basket in the third quarter. Reese’s comments after the game didn’t help his case, as he accused the officials of having “special whistles.”
After Jason Whitlock called Reese delusional and Skip Bayless suggested she was jealous of Clark, the Barstool Sports boss launched more verbal attacks toward the former LSU star.
“Caitlin Clark takes the high road, and all Angel Reese does after the game is shoot her,” Portnoy said.
Dave Portnoy Claims Chicago Sky Newbie Angel Reese Has ‘Lead Character Syndrome’
“That’s blatant, so shut up, Angel Reese,” he exclaimed. ‘You can’t keep your cake. All you do is complain (and) complain. He has main character syndrome. You’re not Caitlin. You will never be Caitlin. So shut the fuck up. And own it.’
Instead of accepting defeat and taking responsibility for hitting his opponent in the head, Reese used his postgame press conference to criticize the referee. He also claimed his team was “playing hard” when they turned Clark back on after their controversial June 1 meeting.
“I think we were playing really hard,” Reese said. “I think we came up really hard a lot of times and we didn’t get a lot of calls.”
“And going back and looking at the film, I’ve seen a lot of calls that weren’t made,” he continued. “I guess some people got a special whistle.”
Portnoy told Reese that she would “never be Caitlin (Clark)” and that she would “own” her flagrant foul.
Reese was charged with flagrant 1 after punching Clark in the face in their loss to Indiana.
Clark nearly had a triple-double with 23 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in the win.
With much criticism already leveled against Reese due to his comments, Portnoy suggested he would “respect” if the forward admitted to making malicious fouls on the much smaller rookie sensation.
“Be like, ‘Yeah, I hate that girl, I had her shut down.'” Basketball plays my ass. “I knew I could hit her in the head and knock her down, so that’s what I did.” Then she would respect him,” Portnoy added.
His not-so-PG rant comes after he tweeted unfiltered reactions during Sunday’s game.
After Dana Evans hooked Clark’s arm on his way to the basket, Portnoy posted the play and wrote, “Chicago Sky doing Chicago Sky things.”
‘Disgusting surprise. “Angelo Reese and Sky doing Angel Reese and Sky things,” she wrote after Reese’s harsh miss. “By the way, Caitlin is cooking them.”
The victory led the Fever to two straight wins and a 5-10 record. Meanwhile, The Sky have lost their last four games and are 4-9 this season.