Keith Olbermann made the mistake of being Twitter’s main character on Sunday night. The veteran sportscaster/former MSNBC host made some choice remarks about Louisiana State University basketball star Ashley Reese, which resulted in Olbermann getting dragged by Samuel L. Jackson, Shaq, and an avalanche of Twitter users.
During the LSU vs. Iowa game, Reese made the “you can’t see me” gesture to Iowa player Caitlin Clark. Unbeknownst to Olbermann, there was context for this exchange between two rivals, but that didn’t stop him from insulting Reese.
“What a f*cking idiot,” Olbermann tweeted above a video of Reese making the gesture to Clark. He then blasted the coach for allowing the exchange. “Doesn’t matter the gender, the sport, the background – you’re seconds away from a championship and you do something like this and overshadow all the good. Mindless, classless, and what kind of coach does this team have?”
Olbermann’s remarks quickly put him on the radar of Nick Fury himself, who had some choice words of his own.
“Thanks for reminding us what Lil Dick Energy actually is, Keith!!!” Jackson wrote.
Thanks for reminding us what Lil Dick Energy actually is, Keith!!!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) April 3, 2023
“shut your dumb ass up leave angel reese alone,” added Shaq.
shut your dumb ass up leave angel reese alone.
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) April 3, 2023
After Jackson and Shaq lit up Olbermann, the rest of Twitter was off to the races. You can see some of the reactions below:
Keith Olbermann got bitchslapped by an Avenger. pic.twitter.com/hj1C18mlE0
— gregoire.
(@mistergeezy) April 3, 2023
Black women can’t ever seem to have a day of joy, can they?
Fuck Keith Olbermann and all the other unmoisturized miserable old pricks out there.
— Jay McGill, One of Thee Countless Blacks (@Jay_McGill94) April 3, 2023
This was a message for the Keith Olbermann’s and for all other White Men. #TheView pic.twitter.com/wTYZNqnbRA
— The Chanteezy Is Real
(@iamchanteezy) April 3, 2023
Shaq replying to Keith Olbermann is why I still love Twitter pic.twitter.com/E6EMBqKL3m
— Lauren McKenzie (@TheMcKenziest) April 3, 2023
Keith Olbermann should’ve just sat there and ate his food, now he’s getting cooked for his misogynoir pic.twitter.com/yOmoUayy6e
— Tanesha, BSN RN drinker of white tears (@ERnurse86) April 3, 2023
Black Twitter really came together like the Avengers at the end of Endgame to drag Keith Olbermann’s dumb ass pic.twitter.com/LAFvokArrx
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) April 3, 2023
After getting ruthlessly dragged, Olberman posted what seemed like an apology, but really, he just doubled down.
“I apologize for being uninformed last night about the back story on this,” Olbermann wrote. “I don’t follow hoops, college or pro, men or women. I had no idea about Clark. Both were wrong.”
However, Olbermann’s apology wasn’t exactly an apology. He included a transcript from his Monday morning podcast where he added the context of Reese and Clark’s “you can’t see me exchanges” and then called both of them “classless”:
Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark are star women’s college basketball players; In an Elite Eight game, Clark of lowa scored 40 points and had a triple double and made a wrestling gesture meaning “you can’t see me” to her opponents. Last night Reese and L-S-U beat Clark and low for the national title 102-to-85 and REESE made the same gesture to Clark AND added another one indicating she was getting the championship ring. Reese was named M-V-P of the tournament and nobody will remember that, nor the L-S-U crown, just the fact that women’s hoops has now achieved parity with the men: its stars can be classless winners who are willing to overshadow their own team’s victories.
Yeah, that’s probably not gonna help, Keith.