More drama. That Sky-Fever game is not being talked about for the basketball but more for ‘that foul,’  and the controversies around it. After the game heated up because of that foul, there was some reported misbehavior and racist comments from the fans in the stadium. Both the WNBA and the Indiana fever have come out with their statements committing to investigating the allegations.

“We are aware of the allegations of inappropriate fan conduct during yesterday’s game and we are working closely with the WNBA to complete their investigation,” the Fever CEO said in a statement. “We stand firm in our commitment to providing a safe environment for all WNBA players.”

NBC reporter Natalie Esquire came out and pointed out that Dave Portnoy, the founder of  Barstool Sports, has been after Reese for a long time. After that amount of hate from an online personality like him and the fans in the stadium, she was not impressed by Fever’s statement.

The statement is pretty straightforward but has one problem: it does not mention racial discrimination at all, which is the allegation against the Indiana Fever fandom. Without including that in their statement, it looks like they are not considering it at all, which ignites another problem for them. It also omits Angel Reese, the alleged victim in this case. This could have been one of the reasons Esquire is not happy with it.

She further showed  the proof that was available in a public forum, which included a collage of tweets that Portnoy had made. He has been a pretty vocal Caitlin Clark fan. In the fan world and on the online forum, that translates into hate for her direct rival Caitlin Clark. Portnoy repeatedly has called Angel Reese classless right from that ‘you can’t see me’ gesture from Reese to Clark years ago.

After those comments and the nationwide backlash at Reese’s actions, she broke down in a postgame press conference. “I’ve been through so much,” an emotional Reese said. “I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times. Death threats. I’ve been sexualized. I’ve been threatened. I’ve been so many things and I’ve stood strong every single time, and I just try to stand strong for my teammates because I don’t want them to see me down and not be there for them.”

It is alleged that these tweets had undertones of racial undertones even if they don’t explicitly have anything that could be labeled as racist. Portnoy himself has denied any racial component to his tweets. He refused to apologize for his tweet, which had received a lot of backlash on social media, referring that it was only his fandom that drove him to make those tweets.

“I will go to my grave, there was no race component,” Portnoy said in an interview on the Club Shay Shay Podcast. “I bet on Iowa. I’m a Caitlin Clark fan. I thought what Angel Reese did at the game was classless, nothing to do with the color of her skin. I tweeted that and it became a race—‘he’s only saying this [because she’s’ Black]’—it had nothing to do with that. I will stand forever.”

We will never know for sure if Portnoy is racially motivated or not but the Reese-Clark rivalry has now taken a whole new turn. It has now evolved into a bigger topic of conversation beyond their skills on the court. Both have been silent on these recent allegations and Reese did not explicitly name Portnoy after his tweets. So we don’t know what their stance is on this. The controversial personality was seen in a quirky outfit at the Indiana Fever game, which further fueled Esquire’s comments.

Dave Portnoy pulled up in Caitlin Clark outfit at the game

As we discussed , Portnoy is a huge Caitlin Clark fan and has been vocal about his support. He had even bet on the Indiana Fever to win the 2024 WNBA title but faced losses as they lost to the Connecticut Sun in the first-round playoff game itself.  Portnoy is a controversial personality, to say the least, right from his ‘better than Warren Buffett’ statements to his beef with ESPN.

Dave Portnoy has stirred up controversy once again — this time with a flair for the dramatic. He showed up to the Indiana Fever’s opening game decked out in a full Caitlin Clark outfit, complete with the team’s “Rebel Red” jersey and matching shorts. A video posted by Yahoo Sports captured Portnoy chatting courtside with injured Fever star Sophie Cunningham before tip-off, adding yet another quirky act to his long list. 

This further accentuates what Natalie Esquire said, that Portnoy has an agenda against Angel Reese because he is such a crazy Indiana Fever fan. Be it racially motivated or not, Portnoy has put out multiple hate tweets against Reese but he has since deleted those tweets and has refrained from writing about her. His history of allegedly racist tweets targeting Angel Reese, combined with the fact that there are racism allegations against portions of the crowd, is a troubling coincidence. 

The WNBA will now look to see if there is any proof of the said allegations against any members of the crowd. This has been a dark cloud over what has been an electric start to the 2025 basketball season. It’s never good when the main attractions are not on the court.