Angel Reese no longer wants to talk about a subject she eagerly discussed as a rookie.
During the Sky’s official preseason media day Monday at Intentional Sports in North Austin, a reporter attempted to ask Reese a question having to do with a point she made strongly last season — that more and more sports fans were tuning into women’s basketball not merely because of 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caitlin Clark but also because of Reese’s own burgeoning stardom.
“Next question,” she interrupted, shutting the reporter down.
It was a different tune last June.
“I know I’ll go down in history,” Reese said then. “I’ll look back in 20 years and be like, ‘Yeah, the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me, too.’ And I want y’all to realize that.”
That comment came a couple of days after a Sky loss to the Fever in the first Reese-Clark matchup since Reese’s LSU squad beat Iowa in the 2023 national championship game. Their WNBA relationship suddenly was very much under the microscope, former Sky guard Chennedy Carter having committed a flagrant foul away from the ball against Clark and Reese — who reacted enthusiastically from the bench — having seemed to enjoy it.
Online trolls had a field day with that one. Reese has an impressive army of supporters, but she also has an outsized share of detractors, many of them hateful and vile. As anyone who has held their nose while wading in the social-media cesspool knows, people can be the absolute worst.
Enter Saturday’s Sky-Fever regular-season opener in Indianapolis. Some will carelessly frame it as the next chapter in a perceived rivalry between 23-year-old hoops household names.
But what it’s really about — potentially, that is — are the ascensions of Clark and Reese as winners at the pro level. The Fever are expected to be one of the best teams in the league, with Clark entering the season as the betting favorite for MVP honors. The Sky aren’t expected to move up in the world at the same pace, though things will have to go terribly wrong for them not to improve on last season’s 13-27 record.
Reese is driven to make the playoffs, a good, seemingly attainable goal for a team that’s back in the Courtney Vandersloot business, has a healthy Kamilla Cardoso and has had an eye-opening preseason from Reese, whose skill set is expanding before our eyes.
Then again, she might not agree that it’s expanding as opposed to being dusted off.
“I don’t think it’s about growing and developing, it’s showing some things that you guys here may not have seen,” she said. “I was the No. 1 wing coming out of high school. When I went into college, I had to transition to being a post player. …
“I’m willing to do whatever it is for the team. I don’t do it for you guys and what you guys can see, it’s for what my team needs. Going into Year 2, I don’t really care about — I’m sorry, excuse me — nothing you all have to say or think or want. I’m doing whatever I need to for the team, and that’s always my prioritization. I want to win as bad as anybody else in Chicago wants us to win.”
Winning — that’s the crux of the biscuit.
According to Reese, new coach Tyler Marsh’s first training camp was harder than last year’s version, and players’ togetherness was greater. These are good signs. So are the things many around Reese are saying about her.
“There are no limits to who she can be as a player,” Marsh said. “That’s what we want her to feel.”
Before Vandersloot rejoined the Sky, she didn’t know much about Reese beyond what she’d seen online.
“Honestly, it took me one day, the first day of practice, to see how much of a competitor she is,” Vandersloot said. “She wants to win. She wants to compete at a really high level. She wants to learn. She’s a great teammate. Obviously, she comes with a lot of attention — and that’s incredible for her and her fans, and also incredible for us as a team — but I’m just looking forward to competing with her.”
Rookie Hailey Van Lith, who played with Reese at LSU, paints an impressive picture of Reese as a teammate and leader. For a team that needed to get much better in that department, it’s another good sign.
“Whenever I show any signs of self-doubt or questions, she’s always the first person to basically tell me to snap out of it,” Van Lith said. “And if I’m performing below my capabilities, she’ll hold me accountable to that and remind me who I am and who I’m supposed to be.”
Van Lith also describes Reese in a handful of words probably worth many more — as someone who “doesn’t allow other people’s perspectives of her to skew who she knows she is.”
She’s a star, no doubt about it. Is she also one of the biggest reasons more and more people are watching the women’s game?
Sorry, next question.