The WNBA was left with some serious egg on its face after an investigation into alleged fan “racism” directed at Angel Reese came up empty-handed.
The league investigated allegations of “hateful comments” directed at the Chicago Sky player during a May 17, 2025, game against the Indiana Fever.
The incident occurred in the third quarter of the Fever’s blowout victory over the Sky. Clark delivered a hard foul on Angel Reese, and the Sky forward responded with intense words and even a motion to engage in a fight.
From there, anonymous complaints surfaced suggesting fans had taunted Reese with racial remarks as she was shooting her free throws. The league, just hours after the game, announced that they were launching an investigation into “hateful comments” from the Fever fans and said “such behavior is unacceptable in our sport.”
However, there was never any evidence to support the claim that this actually happened. Despite their best efforts to prolong the investigation and exhaust every avenue, the WNBA was unable to find any proof to substantiate their allegations.
“We have investigated the report of racist fan behavior in the vicinity of the court during the May 17, 2025, Chicago Sky at Indiana Fever game,” the league said in a statement. “Based on information gathered to date, including from relevant fans, team and arena staff, as well as audio and video review of the game, we have not substantiated it.”
“The WNBA is committed to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for everyone and will continue to be vigilant in enforcing our fan code of conduct.”
Angel Reese is Suddenly Quiet
Honestly, the WNBA should be pleased that they did, in fact, discover that Indiana is a “safe and inclusive environment.”
Following the initial announcement of the investigation, Angel Reese spoke about the completely fabricated charges of racist behavior by the fans.
“Obviously, there’s no place in this league for that,” she said. “I think the WNBA and our team and our organization has done a great job supporting me. … Going through this whole process, if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”
Turns out, it didn’t happen to her.
Despite a willingness to address the situation when the false allegations were floating out in the public ether, Fox News reports that Reese suddenly had nothing to say after her team’s fourth consecutive loss to start the season.
“A live feed of the postgame press conference posted to the team’s X account did not show Reese addressing the league’s Tuesday announcement of not substantiating the claims,” the outlet writes.
The Sky forward and the league itself should issue an apology to Fever fans after spending the last couple of weeks smearing them. And you’d think they’d happily do so, considering the conclusion of this investigation proves no racist fans were misbehaving in Indiana.
RELATED: Caitlin Clark Responds to Alleged Fan Racism Towards Angel Reese
Caitlin Clark Might Want to Issue a Statement Herself
At the same time, basketball phenom Caitlin Clark may also want to issue a statement regarding the league’s findings. She did, after all, lend credence to the sham by speaking out in the hope that the WNBA would find out which fans acted improperly.
“There’s no place for that in our game, there’s no place for that in society,” Clark said. “Certainly, we want every person who comes into our arena — whether player or fan — to have a great experience.”
“Hopefully, the investigation — we’ll leave that up to them to find anything and take the proper action if so,” she said.
Credit to Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who was at the game in question and said from the start that zero racist comments were directed at Angel Reese.
“Being in that crowd, seeing that crowd, being at the game, zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero chance there’s any truth to this,” he said.
“There was no hate. The only hate was coming from Angel Reese attacking Caitlin Clark.”
“The WNBA, talk about killing the golden goose. Like, you guys are lucky you have Caitlin Clark. You are lucky you have the Indiana Fever,” added Portnoy. “It makes the league relevant. All you do is s— on ‘em.”
In her debut podcast episode, Unapologetically Angel, Reese accused Clark’s fans of racism, death threats, and stalking.
“I think it’s really just the fans, her fans, the Iowa fans, now the Indiana fans, that are really just, they ride for her, and I respect that, respectfully. But sometimes it’s very disrespectful. I think there’s a lot of racism when it comes to it,” she said.
Will there now be an investigation into who initiated or helped perpetuate the false claims? The WNBA stepped on a rake here by adding fuel to the racism narrative.
More About:WNBA