The taunt that eclipsed the NCAA women’s basketball championship, explained

On Sunday, April 2, Louisiana State University defeated the University of Iowa and won the NCAA women’s college basketball national championship — an accomplishment that should be one of the biggest women’s sports stories of the year. But all anyone can talk about is what happened in the last few seconds.

In those waning moments, LSU star power forward Angel Reese pointed at her ring finger and waved her own hand in front her face, in the direction of Caitlin Clark, the best player on Iowa’s team. To those familiar with hand gestures in basketball, this was Reese’s way of telling Clark that her team won — that LSU would be getting that championship ring — and that Reese herself was unguardable. To those specifically familiar with Clark and women’s college basketball this season, the hand wave is a call back to Clark’s own dismissal of her previous opponents.

Like any good feud, the more backstory you know, the juicier it gets. As a supporter of women’s rights, this was also the rare moment when you could simultaneously support women’s wrongs.