Angel Reese wants the credit alongside Caitlin Clark that she believes she deserves for the growing popularity of women’s basketball, and 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 debate was reignited by teammate Chennedy Carter’s heavily scrutinized cheap shot on Clark during Chicago’s loss to Indiana on Saturday.
“I know I’ll go down in history,” Reese told reporters Monday. “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.”
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.
Reese became arguably just as recognizable as Clark and was the focal point of plenty of scrutiny during her senior season, which included a bizarre benching.
“It all started from the national championship game, and I’ve been dealing with this for two years now,” Reese said. “Understanding, yeah, negative things have probably been said about me, but honestly I’ll take that because look at where women’s basketball is.
“People are talking about women’s basketball, who 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 just because of one single game.”
