Angel Reese wants the credit alongside Caitlin Clark that she believes she deserves for the growing popularity of ladies’s basketball, and he or she isn’t going to back down from fighting for it.
The Chicago Sky star made it clear how she feels about it two days after the talk was reignited by teammate Chennedy Carter’s heavily scrutinized low-cost shot on Clark during Chicago’s loss to Indiana on Saturday.
“I do know I’ll go down in history,” Reese told reporters Monday. “I’ll look back in 20 years and be like: ‘Yeah, the rationale why we’re watching women’s basketball will not be simply because of 1 person, it’s due to me too, and I would like you to understand that.”
For Reese, sparking fans’ interest goes back to LSU’s national championship game win over Iowa two years ago, where she hit Clark with John Cena’s “You Can’t See Me” hand gesture to cement a rivalry that continued into last season and now the WNBA.
This yr, Iowa ended LSU’s season within the Elite Eight and generated record TV rankings.
Reese became arguably just as recognizable as Clark and was the focus of loads of scrutiny during her senior season, which included a bizarre benching.
“It began from the national championship game, and I’ve been coping with this for 2 years now,” Reese said. “Understanding, yeah, negative things have probably been said about me, but truthfully I’ll take that because have a look at where women’s basketball is.
“Persons are talking about women’s basketball, who you never would think could be talking about women’s basketball. Persons are pulling as much as games. We got celebrities coming to games, sold-out arenas simply because of 1 single game.”
Reese, who seemingly cheered on Carter from the bench after her flagrant foul on Clark made it clear that she’s OK taking over that form of role if it helps bring attention to the sport.
The foul has sparked a debate about what the WNBA ought to be doing to raised protect Clark or if the Fever need to seek out an “enforcer” to assist her.
Still, Reese imagine she and others are also generating attention, not only the star of Clark — the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and the WNBA’s No. 1 draft pick in 2024.
Pat McAfee got into hot water on ESPN for calling Clark a “white bitch” in a segment Monday on “The Pat McAfee Show” that presented some metrics that the Fever star is a minimum of the lead driver of the eye within the WNBA.
“Loads of us have done a lot for this game,” Reese said. “Chennedy has been here before, but there are quite a lot of great players on this league who’ve deserved this or a extremely very long time.”
