There often is a certain awkwardness involved when it comes to the conversation surrounding Angel Reese.
Only rarely has it been because of the second-year Sky star herself.
The public can’t figure out how to talk about her, in much the same way we have a hard time talking about anything anymore. The nature of public discourse nowadays seems to require people to align themselves entirely on one side of any issue — to the complete exclusion of the other — and then assume everyone else with an opinion has done the same. As a method of seeing the world, though, it’s childish, vapid, unserious and unrealistic.
Not everyone is for Reese or against her, or for the Fever’s Caitlin Clark or against her, or for the WNBA or against it.
Some of us — perhaps we’re mutants — view things with more nuance. At the risk of unintentionally offending everybody, here are some of the things I believe to be true:
Reese is bright, fascinating and the hardest-playing baller in Chicago. The hateful slurs and tropes used against Reese are vile and despicable and would put anyone on guard. A large number of purported “Clark fans” on social media are mouth-breathing phonies, merely using her as an opportunity to get in on the idiotic “fun” of expressing hate, and far too unevolved to be legit fans of women’s basketball. Clark is singularly brilliant and so great a player, comparing Reese with her is unfair to Reese because it’s really not close. No matter how much Reese and Clark respect each other, no matter how much they like each other, I struggle to find a single good reason why it should be as ubiquitous a subject as it is.
Also, I don’t know what happened Saturday in regard to alleged hateful language directed at Reese from the pro-Fever crowd in Indianapolis, a matter being investigated by the league. I don’t know if the allegations are accurate. I sure as hell don’t know they aren’t. Guess who else doesn’t know: You. Why are so many determined to “know” the facts of a matter before they in any way whatsoever do? Regardless, though, I feel for Reese, who is picked on, ridiculed and dehumanized on nearly a daily basis — a grossly outsized response to whatever she ever might have done along the way to evoke some small measure of scorn.
The media almost certainly has played a part in this with its coverage of Reese, which has been — to bring up that word again — awkward.
There was the end of the 2023 NCAA title game between LSU and Iowa, which everyone remembers. There was the first Sky-Fever game in 2024, with Chennedy Carter shouldering Clark to the floor away from the ball and Reese seemingly celebrating the foul. There was Reese’s flagrant foul against Clark in the teams’ second game last year, after which Reese implied Clark gets a “special whistle.” Most recently, there was Reese’s ticked-off reaction to being flagrantly fouled by Clark a few days ago.
None of that stuff needed to be such a big deal. But some covering the WNBA choose advocacy over dispassionate examination. Some who don’t cover the league stuck their big mouths in to inflame the rhetoric around these “controversies.” Others of us helicopter in here and there with proper intentions but — despite our long experience — struggle to quite hit the mark when asking questions of Reese or conveying our thoughts about her.
This week, the Sky organization has — after expressing in a statement it would do “everything in our power to protect [our] players” — had Reese’s back. She made it clear Tuesday after practice that she feels supported and “loved,” which is wonderful. She deserves that much.
But it’s possible the Sky have her back a bit too much. Speaking of awkwardness, the Sky keep making small decisions that suggest the entire organization, from top to bottom, should avail itself of media training.
In Indianapolis, a local reporter attempted to ask Reese a perfectly reasonable follow-up question about the play involving Clark’s flagrant foul, but a PR staffer butted in with, “She already answered this question,” shutting it down. Back in Deerfield on Tuesday, Reese was asked if she’d shared any details with the league about anything she might have heard from the crowd, prompting a PR staffer to leap needlessly to her rescue there, too. It happened two more times Tuesday in response to questions that were standard operating procedure and entirely fair.
Why in the world? This isn’t how most professional sports teams do things.
This unfolded after general manager Jeff Pagliocca declined to take questions, a notable call on his part. Instead, he powwowed on the practice court with coach Tyler Marsh and PR staffers before letting Marsh play top spokesman.
None of it does Reese any favors. It just makes things more, well, you know.