I’m wearing a black NBA 2K26 T-shirt with her face on it as I type this. Knowing that I don’t want to do this. Knowing what needs to be said.
‘‘Let me put you in some pucci & take you out the country’’ was the tipping-over point. Angel Reese’s private-jet post on Instagram immediately after her ‘‘uneven and tumultuous’’ WNBA season ended struck a chord and a nerve. Even with those who love her. As she enters the threshold of ‘‘Angel being Angel’’ no longer being the excuse and escape that’s going to work anymore.
Living her life and acting as though she’s above it all, not taking it all seriously, straight not ‘‘getting it’’ or NGAF is a very fine and unforgiving line to walk. Especially when your name ain’t A’ja Wilson or Napheesa Collier. ‘‘Who does Angel Reese think she is?’’
She knows, but we don’t. As unfair as most (media, specifically) have been to Reese, it still seems she’s beyond reproach when it comes to her basketball career. Seeming like she does the opposite of helping herself. Or, worse, she’s falling into a stereotype that she doesn’t care.
And being one to sashay on that walkway all season long is not the good look. Talk is no longer cheap; it’s expensive. It costs. And actions no longer speak louder than just words; they speak louder than contracts and social collateral.
Fair or not, the Sky’s fall-off fell on her. So when she said to the Tribune, ‘‘I’m not settling for the same [expletive] we did this year. We have to get good players. We have to get great players. That’s a non-negotiable for me. We can’t settle for what we have this year,’’ it was a great take, great demand, great perspective. Wrong player, wrong time.
Her mastering the ‘‘Unapologetically Angel’’ podcast, the nailing of her ‘‘Can’t Go Broke’’ TikTok locker-room post with Paige Bueckers from this season’s All-Star Game, becoming part-owner of TOGETHXR and the DC Power Football Club, her acting debut alongside Idris Elba in ‘‘A House of Dynamite,’’ the constant activity she provides for her more than 100 million Instagram followers, her multitasking and just being a young sistah having fun doesn’t level when there’s no significant growth from her rookie season to this past one.
Opening the season shooting 29.6% from the field as the Sky began 2-5 and the nine games during the season in which she shot less than 35% to go along with her 18.2% three-point field-goal percentage set a tone that neither she nor her team recovered from. Making this the time for Reese to make us believe — even if it’s a lie — that she is who we want her to be.
How do you kill a queen with one pawn? Here’s where it gets messy: This past season, albeit very similar to the season before for Angel in terms of individual numbers, didn’t come off the same. The ‘‘rookie rationale’’ was no longer there to save and protect her. What was once cavaliered to, ‘‘Oh, she’ll get better,’’ no longer held honor as it did at this time last year.
Only because there remained the perception that Reese thinks she’s everything. Built on the perception that she does everything. And within those ‘‘everythings’’ comes the ‘‘perception’’ that basketball is the least of her concerns or interests. Which, as her season ended, did more damage than anything that was held against her in the eyes of a public hell-bent on breaking her down while attempting to break her; while knowing her margin for error was soon to reach the zero point, where reality becomes nonexistent in the eyes of an anti-Angel fan base waiting for her to fall.
But here we are.
How do you suppress a narrative unwilling to die? Here’s where it gets tricky: The Sky won three games fewer this season than last with the addition of four more games. The Fever not only won four more games than last season with Caitlin Clark playing 27 fewer games, but they were an overtime loss from making it to the WNBA Finals without her. Now, not just Clark but Aliyah Boston becomes a direct comp of what Reese’s capabilities moving forward are going to be judged against. Which is not fair, but that’s not going to stop it from becoming the new part of her ‘‘unfair’’ reality.
Bottom line, the statute of limitations on the perception of Angel’s true love for the game seems to be coming to an end. ‘‘Perception’’ being the triggering word. Again, it’s not fair or any form of right, but it is what it is. Until she changes it. Allen Iverson fought through it, Shaq never escaped it, A’ja rose above it. Ja Morant, Zion Williamson and Anthony Edwards are still stuck in it. Overachieving life’s ‘‘it is what it is’’ when it comes to certain ‘‘stars’’ is the only land we own in this stereotypical existence called America.
Living your best life? Angel, this ain’t — can’t be — it. Not if you really know what’s in front of you. Unless your best life is not going to be foundational to basketball. Yes, it has come to this. Sorry. Someone had to say this out loud. An enemy of the enemy is still a friend, right? I know, Angel, it’s getting hard to tell. Hopefully not harder to hear.