On or off the court, Angel Reese faced heavy criticism like no other player in the WNBA ever had. Fans mocked her rebounding achievement as ‘Mebounds’ while some trolled her merchandise sales, which set a few records too. Very recently, even Reese’s WNBA Finals manifestation tweet backfired with fans pointing out her future uncertainty at the Chicago Sky.
One fan who constantly gave the 2024 rookie a hard time is Dave Portnoy, who worships Caitlin Clark. Although he never commented on the Sky forward’s posts, he has always been one of the top critics of the two-time All-Star.
Dave Portnoy Sheds Light On the Moment He Started Hating Angel Reese
The Barstool Sports owner always sided with CC whenever possible, thrashing the league, critics, other players, and even her sponsor, Nike, for the ‘low value’ deal. When it came to the rivalry with the Chi Town Barbie, Portnoy was always at the front, firing shots at Reese. Very recently, Portnoy Mocked Reese after the Chicago Sky suspension for detrimental comments.
Though Reese’s suspension had nothing to do with the Fever guard, Portnoy’s comments and criticism highlight his ‘hate’ towards the player. But what fueled this hate? The businessman talked about it on the ‘Courtside club’ podcast as he opened up on the reason for his so-called ‘hate’.
“I started hating Angel in the ring game. When she was going around doing that, and I called her a classless piece of s—t, that got transformed to, ‘Dave’s racist.’ I didn’t even know who she was. I don’t care who did that. I was rooting for Caitlin. That was like the first year I was a Caitlin fan, and I had never seen anybody act like Angel did after the game,” Portnoy said.
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The famous ring game is the 2023 NCAA finals matchup between the LSU Tigers and Iowa Hawkeyes, where the forward won her first NCAA championship despite Clark’s brilliance on the opposite end. She famously showed a ring figure and made a championship gesture, which angered many CC fans, including Portnoy.
The businessman further added that it was his first season in love with the Iowa guard’s gameplay. He even mentioned that he dislikes Reese because it’s part of sports, giving an example like how he has always disliked Peyton Manning, due to being a big fan of Tom Brady.
Dave Portnoy Openly Admits Not Liking Angel Reese
Earlier in July, the Studbudz decided to have an episode with Dave Portnoy. But some fans didn’t like the idea as they felt that it would be ‘only criticism’ towards the Sky forward. Portnoy also tweeted a clip of Williams and Hiedeman. The duo targeted people for criticizing them as they agreed to speak to the Barstool president.
“People are big mad at Studbudz just cause we talked. W fans are freaking nuts. I got one of biggest megaphones in the country. I love them. Love the league. Yeah I don’t like Angel and I love Caitlin. It’s called sports,” Dave Portnoy wrote.
People are big mad at Studbudz just cause we talked. W fans are freaking nuts. I got one of biggest megaphones in the country. I love them. I love the league. Yeah I don’t like Angel and I love Caitlin. It’s called sports. pic.twitter.com/8BQd2tmVkW
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) July 24, 2025
Portnoy claimed that he is a famous basketball analyst, and it’s normal that Studbudz would want to have an episode with him. They completed the live stream, which went viral as the Lynx duo and analyst spoke about games.