When Cheryl Miller speaks, you listen.
The Hall of Famer went on Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s podcast, All The Smoke, and cleared the air on a couple of false narratives that surrounded Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
For one, they don’t hate each other.
Rivals? Sure.
Enemies? Not even close.
Miller coached the two WNBA stars in their first All-Star game last season.
Clark and Reese were teammates for the game, and got along with one another quite well, according to Miller.
Arguably the greatest women’s college basketball player of all time, also opened up about relating to the spotlight that Clark constantly has on her.
And all the hate that is consistently thrown her way.
“I’m gonna be honest because it needs to be said, I can relate to that young lady and I felt for her,” Miller said referring to the Indiana Fever star.
“I know what it’s like to be hated.
“I know what it’s like to be a black woman and hated because of my color.
“I can’t imagine this young lady, I don’t wanna use hate, but despised.
“She brought some on herself a little bit because she’s cocky for a good reason and I love that about her.
“But to watch the dynamics and the media, they had their narrative.
“And I was pleased and proud to see the narrative wasn’t the truth.
“Angel and her got along so well.
“Watching them practice… I didn’t know how talented she was and how well she sees the game in a 3D version, thinker, and defensively a lot better than I thought and gave her credit for.”
The narrative that surrounded Clark and Reese was that they hated one another and had bad blood.
The two of them have each gone on the record to dismiss those claims, but the media has still pushed it.
And they have pushed an even stronger narrative on Clark being the savior of the WNBA.
Specifically the ‘white-savior’ of the league.
And while there’s no denying Clark’s popularity and financial impact she has already had on the league, it would be irresponsible to dismiss the rest of the players of the WNBA, more importantly the black players.
They were the ones that built this league. Clark is helping to grow it.
Both things can be true, without all the animosity and angst that comes with it, due to the media trying to paint a certain picture.
But like Miller said: “The narrative wasn’t the truth.”
