On Sunday, the LSU Tigers defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes, 102-85, in their first NCAA women’s basketball national championship in program history. Yesterday, LSU’s national champion women’s basketball team accepted the invitation from President Joe Biden to visit the White House, despite star player Angel Reese saying they wouldn’t.
Following LSU’s dominant performance, First Lady Jill Biden suggested inviting both teams to the White House to congratulate the success in women’s sports, saying runner-up Iowa should attend “because they played such a good game” before retracting her comment.
Reese, the women’s tournament Most Outstanding Player, rejected Biden’s suggestion earlier, deeming it a “joke” and continuing that “if the roles were reversed, it wouldn’t be the same.” Reese added the team would rather “go to the Obamas” in a podcast.
Some social media commenters noted the racial dynamics involved, saying that an invitation to the White House is typically awarded to the national champions. Having both teams attend detracts from the achievement of LSU’s team, which is predominantly Black, while Iowa’s team is largely white.
Prior, Reese faced criticism on social media for mockingly waving her hand in front of her face while staring down Iowa star Caitlin Clark near the end of the game. Clark, The Associated Press Player of the Year, made a similar gesture to no one in particular during Iowa’s victory in Louisville in the Elite Eight.
“If we were to lose, we would not be getting invited to the White House,” she added. “I remember she made a comment about both teams should be invited because of sportsmanship. And I’m like, ‘Are you saying that because of what I did?’ Stuff like that bothers me because you are a woman at the end of the day. White, Black, it doesn’t matter; you’re a woman; you’re supposed to be standing behind us before anything.”
On LSU’s coach Kim Mulkey states after the victory that the team would attend the White House if invited, Reese says she is uncertain whether she would go.
