The WNBA found no evidence of racism towards Angel Reese during a game between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever last month, and one U.S. Senator believes Reese should be held accountable for the role she played in the controversy.
Reese got heated with Caitlin Clark after being on the receiving end of a hard foul in Chicago’s season-opening game at Indiana on May 17. The WNBA said a day later that it was investigating claims that racist comments were made during the game towards Reese.
The WNBA eventually announced that they looked through audio and video and conducted interviews with fans, team and arena staff. There was no evidence of racist comments or noises being made toward Reese.
Jim Banks, a U.S. Senator from Indiana, told Outkick’s Dan Dakich on Tuesday that he would like to see Reese apologize to Fever fans.
“She accused the Indiana Fever fan base of being racist. They investigated it. They said those accusations were false,” Banks said. “The least she could do is apologize to our great state and the fans that show up at these games and say, ‘I’m sorry, I was wrong.’ Obviously, she’s not gonna do that. But also, Dan, why isn’t the Indiana Fever apologizing to their own fan base for putting them through that, for going through those types of accusations?”
Banks felt the accusations were “demeaning” to the Fever fan base.
“That was just an opposing player who hates Caitlin Clark,” Banks added. “Frankly, it’s a great rivalry for the teams and for the sport, but don’t accuse our fans of being racist. That’s the kind of garbage that gets thrown around all the time.”
US Senator Jim Banks is calling on Angel Reese to APOLOGIZE to the people of Indiana over her fake racism allegations:
— OutKick (@Outkick) June 3, 2025
"The least she could to do is apologize to our great state… obviously she's not going to do that…those are awful accusations and they weren't true."… pic.twitter.com/q0XraiWDif
Reese helped breathe life into the lie
After the WNBA announced they were investigating, Reese had a chance to say she did not hear any racist taunts. Instead, she took the since-disproven claim as an opportunity to lecture fans.
Reese spoke with the media about how much support she has received from the WNBA and the Sky organization. A reporter asked Reese how she was affected during the game against the Fever and how she was able to focus “with this going on simultaneously.” The “this” that the reporter referred to was the racist heckling that apparently did not exist. Reese did admit that it was “hard to hear” the taunts.
You can listen to Reese’s full comments here.
What the WNBA could have done differently
One theory about the so-called racist taunts suggests some noises were made while Reese was attempting free throws. It turns out that a fan was mimicking a high-pitched laugh from streamer “FlightReacts” that has turned into a famous meme. The laugh sounded like a dolphin but may have sounded to some like monkey noises.
It also sounds like the source of the original racism claims was extremely dubious and appeared to stem from some X user who wasn’t even at the game.
“It’s really nasty and racist in this arena,” the X user wrote in a since-deleted post.
The WNBA looked into the allegations like any other organization would, but they probably did not need to issue a public statement about it. They could have simply investigated, realized nothing happened, and let it go.
