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Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark lit the NCAA Women’s Basketball world on fire after their teams locked horns in the championship game this past April. Helping to elevate the women’s game to fans, the pair were named The Sporting News Athletes of the Year, which has sparked some interesting debates on social media.
Angel Reese, a forward for Lousiana State University, and Caitlin Clark, a guard for Iowa State University, were electrifying during their run through the NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament. Some observers of the individual players have said Clark is the better overall player but the Reese won the Most Outstanding Player award of the Final Four. It isn’t exactly apples and oranges but a case could be made for how great both players were.
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Their impact on their sport in particular, on the world of sports in general, compelled The Sporting News to select Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese as our Athletes of the Year for 2023, making them the successors to soccer superstar Lionel Messi baseball’s Shohei Ohtani and placing them in the same category as icons LeBron James, Tom Brady, Michael Jordan and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
“I was at the game. Caitlin and I are friends, and Angel is remarkable … It just made me smile, honestly made me smile, just to see the growth of the game, the incredible athletes on both sides,” Nancy Lieberman, the first woman to become a household name playing basketball, told The Sporting News. “It’s really wonderful to see where the game has gone and finally to be able to catch on with some mainstream appeal.”
The opinions on X have been divided with some saying Angel Reese should have the honor on her own with others saying Caitlin Clark deserved the honor. We’ve got reactions from all sides below.
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Photo: Ben Solomon / Getty
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Jill Biden, the First Lady of the United States, made waves this week after she made a most unusual request in the wake of LSU’s victory over Iowa in the NCCA women’s basketball championship game. Dr. Biden said that she would suggest to President Joe Biden that both teams appear at the White House for the customary visit presented to national sports champions, which caused a stir online.
Jill Biden was in attendance at the final game featuring the victorious Louisiana State University Tigers and the Iowa State University Hawkeyes this past Sunday. Without a doubt, both teams were electrifying to watch en route to the championship contest with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark putting on a scoring clinic any time she stepped on the floor.
However, Clark’s heroics weren’t enough to defeat the strong team effort from LSU and, of course, the moment people can’t stop talking about is LSU player Angel Reese giving Clark a bit of her own “Can’t See Me” medicine.
As ESPN reports, Dr. Biden spoke at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on Monday and extended the invite to both teams.
“I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House; we always do. So, we hope LSU will come,” Biden said. “But, you know, I’m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come too, because they played such a good game.”
Reese retweeted the news of the potential Iowa invite and captioned the tweet “A JOKE,” which echoed a sentiment shared by many online. Typically, the champions, including the players, coaches, and staff, are invited to the White House for a further celebration of their epic wins. As far as it’s been reported, a runner-up has never been extended an invite to the White House.
What we can say with confidence is that women’s basketball is just as vital as men’s basketball and March Madness didn’t disappoint on either side. Reese is also leaning into the discussion by not backing down from her gesture and saying she hopes to keep growing women’s basketball. Kudos to that.
Check out the reaction to First Lady Jill Biden extending invitations to LSU and Iowa to the White House below.
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Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty
Two former Iowa tourism officials were each sentenced to more than a year in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud charges related to a failed 2018 music festival headlined by Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson.
Aaron McCreight, 48, was sentenced to 18 months, and Doug Hargrave, 56, was sentenced to 15 months over charges that they lied to a Cedar Rapids bank in order to finance Newbo Evolve, a three-day music and cultural event held in the city in August 2018.
Prosecutors said the pair – executives at a local promotional group called Go Cedar Rapids — submitted inflated data about the event’s underwhelming ticket sales and projected revenues, and that they lied to the bank that Newbo Evolve was expected to turn a small profit.
In reality, McCreight and Hargrave expected to lose more than $600,000, prosecutors said. The festival eventually lost more than $2 million, and was unable to repay most of the loan to the bank. 97 vendors that provided services to the festival lost a combined $800,000 unpaid fees.
The two men — former executives at a local promotional group called Go Cedar Rapids — each pleaded guilty last January to a single charge of bank fraud.
In addition to the prison time, McCreight and Hargrave were ordered to jointly repay a combined $1.4 million in restitution, and each will be subject to three years of supervised release after their prison terms are complete.
Newbo Evolve was held in Cedar Rapids from Aug. 3-5, 2018, featuring performances by Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, The Wallflowers, Robert DeLong and others.
According to court documents, McCreight, Hargrave and Go Cedar Rapids secured $1.5 million in initial funding from a local bank, telling the lender they expected to sell 11,000 tickets to each of the two headliners and 4,000 three-day passes to the entire festival.
But three months after tickets went on sale, McCreight reported internally that tickets were “not selling as originally budgeted.” By June, the group had sold just just 6,500 total tickets and was internally projecting a loss of $644,846 — with deadlines to pay the artists and vendors looming.
“As the Newbo Evolve event dates approached, GoCR did not have enough money to, among other things, pay Kelly Clarkson, pay production costs, and buy the alcohol that was to be sold at the concert venue,” prosecutors wrote. “Without additional funding, Newbo Evolve would have to be cancelled.”
Faced with that pressure, court documents show, McCreight and Hargrave committed bank fraud. Reporting that ticket sales had “spiked” in recent weeks, they falsely told the bank that 15,000 total tickets had been sold and that the event was forecast to turn a profit of $65,653. And the move worked: the bank eventually extended their line of credit to $2,200,000.
“Ultimately, Newbo Evolve lost more than $2 million,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents. “As a result, GoCR was unable to repay much of its loan from the lending bank when the loan was due.”
When he pleaded guilty last year, an attorney for McCreight told Billboard that he was a “good man” who made a “bad decision” under “extreme pressures.”
“His motive was not based in personal greed, but in an attempt to salvage the Newbo Evolve event for the Cedar Rapids community,” said attorney William White. “Had the event sold more tickets and been profitable, it is unlikely any prosecution would have ensued. However, that was not the case, and Mr. McCreight accepts his involvement in the lending bank losing money and is extremely remorseful.”
Attorneys for both McCreight and Hargrave were not immediately available for comment on the prison sentences.
Read the full judgments against McCreight and Hargrave here:
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