Ever since Angel Reese and her LSU teammates beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Division I National Championship Game, Reese has been cast as the villain by many fans due to the fact that she beat America’s most popular player.
That narrative has continued throughout the 2023-2024 college season and the 2024 WNBA season, where the two of them are both rookies.
And, events during the first matchup of the season between Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever and Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky on Saturday has refocused the conversation about these two.Video of Caitlin Clark getting hit with a cheap shot by Sky guard Chennedy Carter while Angel Reese cheered in the background went viral over the weekend.
Angel Reese hopping off the bench to throw a parade for Caitlin Clark’s murder is crazy lollll pic.twitter.com/NKj5Ur7PZG
— Eric Nathan (@BarstoolNate)
You can see Reese get up off the Sky bench and celebrate.
The play has created a firestorm of discussion around some pretty touchy societal subjects, which isn’t necessarily the attention the WNBA wants.
On Monday, Angel Reese spoke about accepting the villain role, claiming that she, along with Clark is the reason that people are watching the WNBA this season.
Angel Reese believes the physical play that Caitlin Clark has experienced isn't new to the WNBA
Just more
"The reason why we're watching women's basketball is not just because of 1 person. It's because of me, too. I want y'all to realize that"
More: https://t.co/3fNUxipTTD pic.twitter.com/1YbGG4mWuL
— GNSportsTV (@GNSportsTV)
It all started from the national championship game. And I’ve been dealing with this for two years now. And, understanding, yes, negative things have probably been said about me. But honestly, I’ll take that because look where women’s basketball is. people are talking about women’s basketball, you never would think would be talking about women’s basketball. People are pulling up to games, we got celebrities coming to games sold out arenas, like, just because of one single game. And just looking at that, like, I’ll take that role. I’ll take the bad guy role, and I’ll continue to take that on and be that for my teammates, and if I want to be that and I know I’ll go down in history, 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 you to realize that,
That’s a pretty strong statement from Angel Reese, but there is some merit to it. The 2023 National Championship Game was watched by over 12 million viewers, at the time a record for a Women’s Basketball game in America. That was a big part of the craze that was the 2023-2024 college season which saw that record smashed multiple times.
Frankly, if Caitlin Clark is going to be the league’s “hero”, it’s great that she has a villain in Angel Reese.
This season, Reese has been hitting the boards hard, leading the league in offensive rebounds with five per game. But, she’s struggled shooting from the floor, as has Clark. Reese is shooting just 35% from the floor this year while averaging 10.6 points per game. Still, it’s a promising rookie season for the forward, whose 8.9 rebounds per game means she’s nearly averaging a double-double.
The post Angel Reese Says She Accepts The Villain Role For The Betterment Of Women’s Hoops appeared first on BroBible.