Angel Reese is speaking out about the racist, fan-related incidents plaguing the WNBA.
Chicago Sky rookie forward Angel Reese is speaking out as the conversation around racist incidents targeted at WNBA players understandably intensifies.
Sharing a clip from ESPN’s Andraya Carter addressing the problematic issues the league faces, Reese shared her perspective about how she feels she’s been treated during the past two years.
“Y’all know i’ve been going through this for the last 2 years but was told ‘save the tears’ & ‘stop playing victim,'” Reese shared through her social media on Thursday evening. “Y’all a little late to the party and could have tried to put out this fire way before it started….”
You can see Reese’s full statement below via Twitter (X).
Y’all know i’ve been going through this for the last 2 years but was told “save the tears” & “stop playing victim”. Y’all a little late to the party and could have tried to put out this fire way before it started…. https://t.co/EuMfYtzgSA
I’ve never in my life had privilege but I definitely know the power I have through my platform. That didn’t come overnight. I grew that on my OWN. With that being said, I will continue to use my voice in the right way & say what’s right even though it has backfired on me to be…
For the past 2 years, the media has benefited from my pain & me being villainized to create a narrative. They allowed this. This was beneficial to them. I sometimes share my experiences of things that have happened to me but I’ve also allowed this to happen to me for way too long…
Angel Reese is enjoying the time available to her during the offseason while she heals.
As Reese explained about her season-ending injury a few weeks back, she would need time to heal once her surgery was complete before diving into any rehab or offseason work. So, how is Angel spending her offseason with time on her hands? Seemingly, she is traveling and living her best life.
Reese stopped by a San Francisco 49ers-Los Angeles Rams game Sunday before appearing at an Usher concert hours later. In a new video, Reese dances away (and even drops a few notes) while Usher performs one of his well-known serenades to celebrity guests. He can even be heard at one point saying, “Angel, [you’re] tall,” to which Reese hysterically responds, “Well, duh!”
Cathy Engelbert apologized to players for botching an opportunity to call out unhinged fans. Here’s what she said.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert walked back her comments earlier this week, where she failed to address the abusive words and actions coming from Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese fans.
Engelbert recently appeared on CNBC and was asked about the online discourse that has turned into racial and sexist abuse. The commissioner seemingly sidestepped the question, leaning into the “rivalry” between the two rookies and speaking about how both players should “ignore” those fans.
“I was asked a question about WNBA rivalries and the dark side of social media and race, and simply put, my answer missed the mark, and I’m sorry.”
“I regret that I didn’t express, in a clear and definitive way, condemnation of the hateful speech that is all too often directed at WNBA players on social media. This is a teachable moment and one that I embrace with humility. There is absolutely no room for racism, misogyny, homophobia and other forms of hate in the WNBA or anywhere.”
“I know many of you have been dealing with it for a long time. I want us as a league to do our part to change the too often toxic and abusive nature of social media discourse.”
NEW: The WNBA’s breakout season has had an ugly side: a surge in racial abuse of players online.
Per Jackie Powell of The Next, Stewart seemed receptive to Engelbert’s apology and even spoke with the commissioner on the phone.
I spoke to Breanna Stewart today and got her reaction to the letter Cathy Engelbert sent to all players following her comments on CNBC.
Engelbert also called Stewart on Wednesday, the day after Stewart addressed Engelbert's comments in a postgame presser on Tuesday night. pic.twitter.com/c6ElHhEEfH
It is also worth noting that Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) president and Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike chatted with Engelbert as well.
The Commissioner sent a letter to all of the players apologizing for her “rivalry” remarks on CNBC subsequent to her X post condemning racism.
She also spoke with players, including Nneka Ogwumike, WNBPA President.
Sue Bird isn’t worried about Angel Reese’s game, and you shouldn’t be either. Here’s why.
Despite breaking several WNBA and rookie records, Angel Reese‘s first season in the league hasn’t come without scrutiny. Many people have commented about Reese’s shooting, dinging her for a less-than-stellar percentage. But WNBA legend Sue Bird isn’t worried.
During a recent episode of Sue’s podcast with Megan Rapinoe — A Touch More — the former hooped discussed several topics at length, including the records that Reese broke this season. With a season-ending injury, Angel won’t get to continue building on those records.
However, when healthy, she can work on building up her offensive bag, making her a better pro. Bird seems to agree with that notion, and here’s why she isn’t concerned about the low number (See the clip below and the 15:58 mark of the YouTube video):
“What I find most fascinating about her game is her shooting percentage, and this is why. She shoots something like high thirties…The thing about her game, though…this is in her control.”
“She’s not a guard who’s coming off down screens and coming off flares…like a lot of things have to go your way to get a good shot, or you have to make things go your way to get a good shot…I think for Angel, what’s interesting is she kinda knows what shot she’s gonna get…”
“These shots are coming — at the clip they’re coming, in the places that they’re coming, no matter what. Every single game. Pretty consistent. So, all she really needs to do is bump up her shooting percentage by, like, three, four, [or] five points, which is totally doable. And all of a sudden we’re looking at a kid — instead of averaging like 13 [points] and 13 [rebounds], it’s like 18 [points] and 13 [rebounds]…”
The Chicago Sky were down so bad that fans made a meme.
Angel Reese and her Chicago Sky teammates might have unintentionally created a new meme during a demoralizing loss to the Washington Mystics.
Despite a season-ending injury, Angel was courtside Wednesday as the Sky hosted the Mystics in a game with significant playoff implications. Chicago needed to win to widen the gap between Washington and the Atlanta Dream as all three teams race toward the final spot for postseason play.
What could have been a tremendous victory turned into a nightmare as the Mystics, who have been surging, beat Chicago by over 30 points. One WNBA fan caught the moment when Angel, Diamond DeShields and Elizabeth Williams hung their heads on the bench, seemingly embarrassed or disgusted by what they were witnessing.
How we all felt during this game tonight. Mystics beat Chicago 89-58 to move within 1 game of the eighth-place Sky for final playoff spot. This has been a hard year for our team. #angelreese#chicagosky#diamonddeshields#elizabethwilliams
Angel Reese is a big fan of green Gatorades, and WNBA totally fans noticed.
Angel’s season is over after a season-ending wrist injury. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t see her at any Chicago Sky games. She’ll be courtside supporting her teammates. So, fans will likely catch her cheering, chatting and *checks notes* drinking lots of green Gatorade.
After photos and a video surfaced of Angel sipping away on the sports drink with a straw — apparently, that was groundbreaking news to hoops fans — she responded with a perfect usage of Jools LeBron’s “very mindful, very demure” TikTok meme. Here’s the hilarious tweet she shared on Thursday to X (formerly Twitter):
The Tigers landed the No. 5 player in the 2025 class on Thursday.
LSU women’s basketball and coach Kim Mulkey landed an absolutely massive pickup on Thursday.
Five-star guard [autotag]Divine Bourrage[/autotag], fresh off an official visit to Baton Rouge, announced her commitment to the Tigers. Bourrage ranks as the No. 5 player in the 2025 recruiting class, according to ESPN’s rankings.
The Davenport, Iowa, prospect committed to LSU over South Carolina, Arizona, Baylor, Illinois and Virginia Tech. She becomes the second commitment in the 2025 class, joining guard [autotag]Bella Hines[/autotag], who is also a five-star prospect.
Bourrage’s commitment gives Mulkey three top-10 recruits during her time at LSU. The Tigers also landed a top-100 guard in the 2024 class in [autotag]Jada Richard[/autotag].
After leading LSU to back-to-back Final Fours including a national title in 2023, Mulkey is reloading as she looks to return this team to championship-contending form following quite a few offseason losses, headlined by [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag].
Contact/Follow us @LSUTigersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Louisiana State news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno
If Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team is going to have a successful 2024-25 season, much of it will depend on [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag]A. After missing the entire 2023-24 season while recovering from a knee injury she suffered late in the 2022-23 season, she’s ready to get back to action.
With the Irish’s first game several weeks away though, Miles simply can’t stay away from live basketball. So she figured the time was right to leave South Bend for a bit to watch the Chicago Sky host the Washington Mystics. The Sky took notice of her presence and decided to spread the word on social media.
The game resulted in an 89-58 win for the Mystics, but Miles got to watch two former Irish players for the Sky. [autotag]Lindsay Allen[/autotag] scored six points to go with a team-high five assists, and [autotag]Brianna Turner[/autotag] had four points while leading the Sky with three steals.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.
The WNBA is seemingly only worried about its pockets, not the humanity of its players.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert had a chance to do something that should have been done a long time ago — condemn the people who have used Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese‘s names to further their own agendas. Instead, she sidestepped the opportunity to use her platform, opting for the dollars instead.
Since the 2023 National Championship and into their rookie WNBA seasons, Clark and Reese have been at the center of some of the wildest vitriol women’s sports have seen in recent years. Their stardom has galvanized an extremist movement of “fans” whose only goal is to find the opportunities — the cracks — in the foundation of women’s basketball and fill them with racial, sexist and bigoted sludge.
The narratives driven by “supporters” (and perpetuated by media personalities like Charles Barkley) have grown so loud and dangerous that Clark and Reese were forced to respond and reveal unhinged behavior like death threats and stalking. But the league has been publicly silent about what’s happening. Recently, Engelbert gave a corporate, safe non-answer when allowed to denounce the rhetoric and refocus the conversation on basketball. Here’s what she told CNBC:
“Well, one thing that’s great about the league right now, we do sit at this intersection of culture and sports and fashion and music — like the WNBA players are kind of looked at now as cultural icons. And when you have that, you have a lot of attention on you. There’s no more apathy. Everybody cares.”
“It’s a little bid of that [Larry] Bird-Magic[Johnson] moment…we have that moment with these two. The one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.” Social media is different today than it was in 1979 when it didn’t exist.”
“But…I always tell the players — I was told a long time ago if someone is typing something in and you wouldn’t ask their advice, ignore it. It’s a balance. But certainly, from a marketing dollars — corporate partners are stepping up to endorse these players more so than they were five years ago because they see the benefit of having women and diverse women representing their brand.”
The problem with that answer is that it ignores the elephant in the room.
It minimizes the ugly truth that a small but extremely loud and rapidly growing contingent of WNBA “fans” is dramatically shifting what the conversations should be about. Engelbert’s answer also comes off as dismissive of the gravity of what is being spewed directly to both players, in the names of Caitlin and Angel and other WNBA players.
Earlier this season, Aliyah Boston had to delete her social media because the things said to her were well past basketball. A man tracked down Chennedy Carter and the Chicago Sky to reportedly hurl racist and misogynist marks after a hip-check foul. And those are only two examples.
Dozens more instances involve players, which only worsens when social media is involved. The internet has become a cesspool for people to operate unchecked, all behind the mask of WNBA fandom and free speech. Finding the right words to say on such topics is never easy, and it often requires more profound thought before speaking. But how much longer is this supposed to go on? How bad does it have to get before the league says something?
The WNBA has always been a socially-conscious league focused on being aware of things larger than basketball. However, it cannot turn a blind eye now because its bank account says it’s not worth the fuss. Doing so is disingenuous to every player who has ever played in the league and any future athlete who will wear a WNBA jersey.
The plot has officially been lost when money trumps humanity, and the WNBA is dangerously close to completely fumbling Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s impact.
Angel Reese is not here for whatever shenanigans fans are up to regarding her wrist injury.
On Saturday, Angel shared via social media that her rookie season would end early due to a season-ending wrist injury. The news shocked many — including Caitlin Clark, who wished her well — because Angel had just completed a stellar shooting performance against the Sparks, a noteworthy highlight to add to her rookie season. Of course, that led many fans to speculate with really outrageous reasoning about why she was cutting her rookie year short. (We will not amplify any of those takes here, but some of you need to go outside, touch some grass and stop making assumptions that only confirm your biases.)
As you might suspect, the online chatter over Angel’s injury got back to her. During an Instagram live session on Sunday, she trolled those who think she’s faking her injury, saying, “Would you like me to show you my x-rays, stinky poo?” before making mimicking crying sounds. She quickly followed that up with, “Just because you guys don’t have, like, cliques anymore, or I don’t have something to say anymore, doesn’t mean I’m faking it, booski.”
Angel also went to TikTok to answer questions many people have been wondering about, including how her injury happened, her upcoming surgery, and what the next several weeks will look like.