ESPN analyst Ryan Clark and Fox Sports analyst Robert Griffin III’s public feud about WNBA stars Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark is no longer about basketball.
The discourse between the former ESPN colleagues started over the Fever-Sky game on Saturday when Clark was called for a flagrant foul on Reese in the third quarter.
Griffin, who reacted in a video on X with his wife Grete Griffin sitting in the background, said that he believed Reese “hated” Caitlin Clark, and that’s why the Chicago forward yelled at the Fever star after being fouled.
In a separate video on X, Ryan Clark said Griffin was fueling a negative narrative about Reese and villainizing her — while also including race, Griffin’s wife and their home life in his rebuttal.
Clark, 45, and Griffin, 35, both of whom are black, were teammates with Washington in 2014; Griffin’s ex-wife, Rebecca, and current wife, Grete, are both white.
“The one thing we know about RG3 is he’s not having conversations at his home about what black women have to endure in this country, about what young, black women and athletes like Angel Reese have had to deal with being on the opposite side of Caitlin Clark’s rise and ascension into stardom,” Ryan Clark said in a clip from his podcast.
“If you’re RG3, when’s 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,” he added. “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.”
Griffin posted another video response and explained that Ryan Clark crossed the line by bringing his family into it and said he launched a personal attack on him and his family over a sports opinion.
“Ryan Clark personally attacking me and my family personally over a sports opinion is cowardly, spineless, and weak,” Griffin wrote. “Ryan Clark personally attacking me and my family personally over a sports opinion is a bad look for ESPN and for him as a man.”
Ryan Clark publicly stood by his remarks in a series of tweets on Sunday night — and said that Griffin was “one of the worst teammates I ever had both on the field and in TV.”
“Bruh you know what it is with me and you! I saved you the entire season on ‘MNF,’” Clark wrote. “I urged people to let you be you. No matter how corny, how bad a teammate you were I had your back. What did you do? Invite someone on your show you know I don’t fool with to ask questions about me, and then hit me weeks later to tell me you’re gonna challenge one of my takes! You’re a phony bro. One of the worst teammates I ever had both on the field and in TV. You gotta do what you gotta do.
“I didn’t attack your wife. I spoke on what you do on social media and Tv. Like I said. I met your wife and she seemed like a lovely lady that was worth more than the color of her skin! You be good bruh.”
He then added, “In no way tripping on any of it. Know exactly who I am, what I said, why I said it, & who I said it for! I can live with everything else.”
Ryan Clark and Griffin weren’t the only sports analysts to publicly debate the Clark-Reese rivalry — which began during their college days when Reese and the LSU Tigers beat Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2023 NCAA title game.
Many have centered their takes around theories about race, while others have said it’s a narrative that’s being blown out of proportion.
After the foul, Caitlin Clark walked away and Reese was held back by teammates.
Reese and Fever forward Aliyah Boston both received technicals before the Fever dominated the Sky 93-58 in their home opener in Indianapolis.
Caitlin Clark told ESPN’s Holly Rowe that there was nothing malicious about the foul.
Despite her on-court reaction, Reese downplayed it her postgame press conference and called it a good basketball play.
The Fever and Sky face each other five times this season.
