Former NBA player Etan Thomas compared Chicago Sky star Angel Reese to a member of the “Little Rock Nine,” as the WNBA player allegedly had “hateful comments” hurled toward her during the team’s loss to the Indiana Fever.

Thomas posted a photo to his social media account on Monday, portraying Reese as one of the nine Black schoolgirls who were able to attend an all-White school in Arkansas following the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that ended segregation in public schools.

The photo showed Reese superimposed onto the iconic black and white photo known as the “Scream Image.” It showed 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford being yelled at on her way to school. The picture depicted the bravery Eckford showed by going into Little Rock Central High School.

“This is how it’s been for Angel Reese ever since the 2023 NCAA Tournament when her LSU Tigers defeated Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes in the national championship game,” Thomas wrote on X.

The WNBA was reportedly investigating racial slurs that were reported to have been directed at Reese during the game on Saturday. The league did not get into specifics of what allegedly occurred during the game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

“The WNBA strongly condemns racism, hate, and discrimination in all forms — they have no place in our league or in society. We are aware of the allegations and are looking into the matter,” the league said in a statement.

DAVE PORTNOY SLAMS WNBA AS LEAGUE INVESTIGATES ‘HATEFUL COMMENTS’ TOWARD ANGEL REESE

Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese, #5, responds to the crowd after a WNBA exhibition basketball game against Brazil in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) also released a statement.

“The WNBPA is aware of reports of hateful comments at yesterday’s game in Indianapolis and supports the WNBA’s current investigation into this matter,” the union said. “Such behavior is unacceptable for our sport.

“Under the WNBA’s ‘No Space for Hate’ policy, we trust the league to thoroughly investigate and take swift, appropriate action to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all.”

Reese and Clark had a heated exchange during the game, but both players said it was a “basketball play” and nothing more.

Reese’s confidence in her abilities and willingness to back them up has made her one of the most-talked-about athletes in the WNBA.

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, #22, and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese, #5, shake hands before the game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on May 17, 2025. (Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images)

She finished second in WNBA Rookie of the Year voting, earned a WNBA MVP vote and finished her first year with the Sky averaging a double-double.

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Four years later, the memory remains uncomfortably fresh.

The last time the Dodgers tried to defend a World Series title, they racked up 106 victories. They matched the best winning percentage in the franchise’s Los Angeles history. They had seven All-Stars and three Cy Young vote-getters.

And it still wasn’t enough to win them the National League West.

The San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers still well remember, won 107 games in the 2021 season, marking the only time in the last dozen years someone else has claimed the division crown. The Dodgers eventually knocked the Giants out of the playoffs that October, but their elongated path through the postseason as a wild card team left them gassed in the NL Championship Series. They were eliminated six wins shy of a repeat title.

For president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, the experience underscored an all-important truth.

“Our primary goal during the regular season is to win the division,” Friedman said. “That is what we feel like puts us in the best position to accomplish our ultimate goal.”

Thus, with another tight division race looming this year, the Dodgers didn’t wait to act aggressively this week.

Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor were struggling. Dalton Rushing and Hyeseong Kim looked like intriguing big-league options. And in two moves that were made in an effort to “win as many games as we can” in this season’s World Series title defense, Friedman said, the longtime veterans were released to make room for the rookies. Sentimentality lost out to the odds of even slightly better regular-season success.

“This has been a very emotional week for all of us,” Friedman said, addressing reporters hours after Taylor was released on Sunday. Barnes was designated for assignment earlier in the week. “Barnsey and CT have been in the middle of some huge moments for this organization. Both guys have left an indelible mark on our culture and where we’re at this point. So the decisions were incredibly difficult. The conversations were tough.”

“But,” Friedman countered, “with where we are, the division race, the composition of roster, everything — we felt like this was in the Dodgers’ best interest … [to] put us in a position to best win the World Series this year.”

Note the first factor Friedman mentioned in his answer.

Though the Dodgers are tied for the best record in the National League at 29-18, they continue to nurse the slimmest of NL West leads, entering Monday just one game up on the rival San Diego Padres (27-18) and upstart San Francisco Giants (28-19), and only four games clear of even the fourth-place Arizona Diamondbacks (25-22).

With their pitching staff already in tatters, at least temporarily, because of a wave of early-season injuries, the importance of consistent offense has also suddenly heightened; the Dodgers needing to maximize the production of their lineup to help offset a 4.18 team ERA that ranks 21st in the majors.

In a world where the Dodgers were running away with the division, or pitching the way they expected after two offseasons of spending heavily on the mound, maybe they could have tolerated Barnes’ and Taylor’s combined .208 batting average. They might have been more comfortable giving two longtime cornerstones of the franchise a longer leash to turn things around.

Instead, as club brass surveyed this year’s competitive division landscape, they recognized that — this season more than most — every single victory could matter come the end of the campaign. That every single loss would make the challenge of winning another World Series incrementally tougher.

So, as Rushing crushed triple-A pitching and Kim excelled in what was initially planned to be only a brief big-league call-up, the Dodgers did what they felt like they must. Rushing replaced Barnes as backup catcher. Taylor was cut loose so Kim wouldn’t be sent back to the minors. And a roster that once seemed too top-heavy now has, at least in theory, more potential impact options to bring off the bench.

“We didn’t feel like coming into the season this was something that we would necessarily be doing in May,” Friedman said. “But with where we were, all things factored in, while not easy, we felt like it was the right thing to do.”

There were other reasons, of course, the Dodgers felt motivated to make such emotionally conflicting decisions now.

Manager Dave Roberts noted that Rushing (who was batting .308 in the minors this year, and has started his big-league career an impressive four-for-10) and Kim (who has hit .452 since arriving in the majors, and has impacted games with his versatile glove and lightning-quick speed) deserved opportunities for more prominent roles.

With most of the team’s core players on the wrong side of 30, there are longer-term considerations about developing younger talent as well.

“I think some of it is the [division] race,” Roberts said. “Some of it is, you still want to continue to develop young players and give them opportunities with a veteran ball club.”

Eventually, it was always likely that Rushing would force his way to the majors, and that Kim would carve out a niche with his well-rounded skill set.

But the early pressure being applied by the team’s NL West rivals still sped up that timeline. The Dodgers remember what happened in 2021. And, wary of having that reality repeat itself, they didn’t wait to begin acting with urgency this year.

“We saw it in 2021, winning 106 games and not winning the division,” Friedman said. “We have a tough division [again this year]. We’ve got some really good teams in our division who are playing well. And so for us, it’s about doing everything we can each night to try to win a game.”

The Thunder’s pursuit of its first-ever NBA championship since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City remains alive. 

While the franchise did reach the mountaintop when the team called Seattle home in 1979, the team has yet to win a title since settling in OKC. Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the team with 35 points as OKC steamrolled the Denver Nuggets in Sunday’s Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals.

The 125-93 victory punched the Thunder’s ticket to the Western Conference Finals. OKC will meet the Minnesota Timberwolves in the conference finals, which begins on Tuesday.

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Elswehere, the New York Knicks will face off against the Indiana Pacers in the NBA’s other conference finals. The Knicks haven’t won an NBA championship since 1973. The Pacers won their most recent title that year — in the ABA.

When Commissioner Adam Silver hands one of those teams the Larry O’Brien Trophy next month, it’ll mark a league first — seven championship franchises in a seven-year span.

May 18, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA;Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) shoots against the Denver Nuggets in the second half during game seven of the second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center. (Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images)

There hasn’t been a back-to-back NBA champion since the Golden State Warriors won in 2017 and 2018. From there, the list of champions goes like this: Toronto in 2019, the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, Milwaukee in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Denver in 2023 and Boston last season.

It’s the longest such run of different champions in NBA history; Major League Baseball, the NHL and the NFL have all had longer ones, and not too long ago, either.

May 18, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort (5) gestures after scoring against the Denver Nuggets in the second quarter during game seven of the second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center. (Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images)

Despite dealing with what ESPN reported as a “Grade 2 hamstring strain,” Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon played on Sunday. He finished the loss with 8 points during his 25 minutes on the court.

While the season is over for 26 of the NBA’s 30 clubs, the fun is just starting for the last four teams standing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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