Angel Reese on Thursday night said she’s taking her “voice back” to “create the narrative of who I actually am” while calling out the media, which she says benefited from her “pain and me being villainized.”
In a post on social media, Reese, whose rookie season was cut short because of injury, laid the blame for the critical “narrative” round her on the feet of the media.
“For the past 2 years, the media has benefited from my pain & me being villainized to create a narrative. They allowed this,” Reese wrote on X. “This was helpful to them. I sometimes share my experiences of things which have happened to me but I’ve also allowed this to occur to me for way too long and now other players on this league are coping with & experiencing the identical things. This isn’t okay in any respect.
“Anything beyond criticism about playing the sport we love is mistaken. I’m sorry to all of the players which have/proceed to experience the identical things I even have…. That is why I began my podcast. To take my voice back and create the narrative of who I actually am. At the tip of the day, I don’t want an apology nor do I feel this may ever stop but something has to vary.”
Reese’s comments come someday after the WNBA posted its own statement over the racist and threatening comments its players have received this season.
Alyssa Thomas specifically called out Fever fans for the “racial comments” they spewed through the first-round series between the Connecticut Sun and Indiana.
“I feel in my 11-year profession, I’ve never experienced the racial comments [like] from the Indiana Fever fan base,” Thomas said Wednesday night. “It’s unacceptable, truthfully, and there’s no place for it. We’ve been skilled throughout the entire entire thing, but I’ve never been called the things that I’ve been called on social media, and there’s no place for it. Basketball is headed in an awesome direction, but we don’t want fans which can be going to degrade us and call us racial things.”
Reese said in a separate post that she would proceed to make use of her voice to “say what’s right.”
“I’ve never in my life had privilege but I definitely know the ability I even have through my platform,” Reese also posted. “That didn’t come overnight. I grew that on my OWN. With that being said, I’ll proceed to make use of my voice in the precise way & say what’s right though it has backfired on me to be this ‘villain’. I won’t stop!!”
