Stephen A. Smith and Dez Bryant tend to disagree a lot on sports matters, and the latest back-and-forth between them concerns Angel Reese.
This past weekend, the two of them got into a heated debate regarding Angel Reese and the game she just had against the Indiana Fever.
After dropping her eighth consecutive double-double, Dez Bryant took to his X account and called out Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe for not praising Reese for the season that she is having.
“I don’t see much praise on the historic rookie run Angel Reese is having in her Rookie year,” Bryant wrote before tagging Smith and Sharpe’s X handles. “Where y’all at? She deserves the high praise right now!”
Stephen A. Smith saw his name trending, promptly jumped online, and fired right back at the former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver.
“Man, for once, will you stop your B.S. Sharpe has praised her continuously. So have I, even profiling her excellence on numerous occasions,” Smith responded. “It’s on our social media pages. We’ve talked about her on First Take.
“If you want notoriety, just say so, bro! You need attention? Just ask to come on the damn show. But stop lying!”
Dez waited until Monday to respond when he said, “Never in my life I had to beg for attention nor cared to be seen!”
Instead of responding back, Smith and Shannon Sharpe praised Angel Reese for her huge game on First Take.
“She was absolutely sensational yesterday,” Smith said of Reese. “She was big time. Make no mistake about it: She showed up and showed out.”
Sharpe mentioned Reese having 25 points and 16 rebounds, saying, “It’s just a small, small sample size for me. It’s a toss-up, but you know that’s not what we do here, Stephen. And you got to pick one of the other. So, with that being said, I think I’m going to take Angel Reese right now because of those double-doubles.”
Smith agreed with Sharpe and said, “I don’t really disagree with what Shay Shay said.” He said, “Caitlin Clark is on the verge of becoming the first WNBA rookie ever to average 15, 5, and 5, so certainly she deserves to be in a run,” Smith finished.
Smith made it clear that Caitlin Clark deserves praise for her game as well, but he further stated that Reese has inserted her name into the Rookie of the Year conversation.
He justified his words by saying: “Angel Reese with eight straight double-doubles. She was absolutely, absolutely sensational yesterday. She was big time, make no mistake about it. She showed up and showed out and, being down by 15 and sparking her team back. I just can’t say enough about it,” Smith said.
Angel Reese Has Best Performance As A Professional
Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese made WNBA history by putting up seven double-doubles in a row, which was the longest streak for a rookie in the league. Then, she decided to add to it in her next game.
The former LSU star set the record on Thursday in a home game win against the Dallas Wings, and then she got even better as she put up 25 points and 16 rebounds to extend her rookie record double-double streak to eight games when the Chicago Sky defeated the Indiana Fever on Sunday.
Magic Johnson Gives A Comparative Comment On The Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark Rivalry, Making The Online Community Look At Women’s Basketball Differently
The third iteration of the Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark rivalry went down on Sunday as the Chicago Sky defeated the Indiana Fever for the first time in their third try.
Reese made sure her team gutted out this win with one of the best performances yet, scoring a career-high 25 points and grabbing 16 rebounds to lead the Chicago Sky to a thrilling 88-87 comeback victory over the Fever as they had their four-game win streak snapped.
The following day, Magic Johnson took to his X account to compare the budding rivalry between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark to his rivalry with Larry Bird.
He mentioned that their college matchup set all-time viewership records in the NCAA Championship, just as the LSU Tigers and Iowa Hawkeyes did in 2023.
“When I think about Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s impact on the game, they remind me a lot of Larry Bird and me,” Johnson wrote on social media. “Our first meeting, Indiana State vs. Michigan State, in the NCAA Championship set the all-time viewership record for men’s basketball. Caitlin and Angel’s 2023 NCAA Championship matchup and their 2024 Elite Eight games were the highest viewership records at the time.”
In the latest matchup, where Reese recorded a double-double for the eighth consecutive game, extending her WNBA rookie record, Caitlin Clark also set a record in a losing effort.
Through three quarters on Sunday vs. Chicago, Caitlin Clark was having the best passing game of her young WNBA career, and by the time she had finished the game, she had set a record.
Caitlin Clark Pours Cold Water on ‘Rivalry’ With Angel Reese
Much has been made of the dynamic between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, but one of them has had enough of it.
The two WNBA rookies have been stealing headlines ever since Reese taunted Clark with a “you can’t see me” celebration and pointed at her ring finger in the closing seconds of LSU’s title victory over Iowa.
Despite the storylines, Clark is not in agreement that there is a rivalry.
“I’m pretty sure that the only people who view this as a rivalry is all of you,” Clark told reporters after her Indiana Fever beat the Atlanta Dream on Friday via The NY Post. ‘For us, it’s just a game of basketball. That’s what it is. If it’s going to help move the game forward, then absolutely. That’s amazing. That’s what it should be. People can talk about it.”
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