Keith Olbermann apologizes for calling LSU's Angel Reese a 'f---ing idiot' after taunt battle goes viral
'I don't fit the narrative,' Reese said, defending her viral taunts against Iowa in a press conference after the game
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Liberal podcaster and serial tweeter Keith Olbermann apologized Monday after he called LSU Tigers basketball player Angel Reese "a f---ing idiot" for her behavior during the championship game Sunday.
Reese went viral after she taunted the University of Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team twice during Sunday's game. While the Tigers made history, winning their first championship ever, many commentators were focused on the trash talk between Reese and Clark.
"What a f---ing idiot," Olbermann tweeted live during the game, responding directly to a clip of Reese tapping her finger, signifying that it was her turn to get the championship ring. Reese, a star player for LSU, also made a John Cena style "you can't see me gesture" that went viral online.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Olbermann continued: "Doesn't matter the gender, the sport, the background - you're seconds away from a championship and you do something like this and overshadow all the good. Mindless, classless, and what kind of coach does this team have?"
Keith Olbermann apologized after calling LSU basketball player Angel Reese a "f---ing idiot" and "classless" for taunting an opposing team.
Olbermann later tweeted out an apology for his comments calling Reese "classless." He claimed that he was "uninformed" and doesn’t follow either men’s or women’s basketball.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I apologize for being uninformed last night about the back story on this. I don't follow hoops, college or pro, men or women. I had no idea about Clark. Both were wrong."
Olbermann criticized both Reese and Clark on his podcast, calling them "classless winners who were willing to overshadow their own team’s victories."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}LSU's Angel Reese reacts in front of Iowa's Caitlin Clark during the second half of the NCAA Women's Final Four championship basketball game Sunday, April 2, 2023, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
The event sparked a massive backlash and debate on Twitter over the role of trash talk in sports.
University of Maryland College Park senior lecturer Dr. Jason Nichols bashed Olbermann directly, telling him that both Clark and Reese have a right to talk trash during the game.
"If you don’t follow the sport or know the culture around basketball, perhaps refrain from commenting on it. Both women will be remembered and both can talk trash."
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After the game, Reese reacted to the backlash against her viral taunts in a press conference.
"All year I was critiqued about who I was. I don’t fit the narrative, I don’t fit in the box that y'all want me to be in. I'm too hood, I'm too ghetto. Y'all told me that all year. But when other people do it, y'all don't say nothing. So this is for the girls that look like me," Reese said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Clark has also made taunting gestures during games, prompting some commentators to call out the scandal as hypocritical. "If it wasn’t 'classless' when Caitlin Clark did it, don’t call it classless when Angel Reese does it. Let the women compete, it’s sports!!" former NFL player and Fox Sports 1 analyst Emmanuel Acho said on Twitter.
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Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.