Chicago Sky guard Ariel Atkins has Angel Reese’s again.
After Reese answered, the veteran Atkins interjected with an impassioned protection of her sophomore teammate.
“This is a 23-year-old kid who handles herself with grace. Her crown is heavy,” Atkins stated.
“So whatever else y’all want to come at her, for the way that she acts, she has to build the wall, she has to have the wall, because if she doesn’t, people will break her down. Not only just because of the way she looks, but because of the way she carries herself.”
Reese was moved to tears through the tackle by Atkins, who urged reporters to maintain their questions centered on basketball.
“She knows who she is, and we ain’t going to break her down for that,” Atkins, 28, stated.
The scene was paying homage to the 2024 press-conference that adopted LSU’s season-ending loss to Caitlin Clark-led Iowa.
Reese, then a senior at LSU, choked again tears as she described receiving “death threats” and different diatribe ever for the reason that Tigers defeated Iowa within the 2023 nationwide championship recreation. Hailey Van Lith, now a teammate on the Sky, was among the many LSU gamers to consolation Reese that day.
The on-court rivalry between Reese, who’s Black, and Clark, who’s white, has continued within the execs, and it has been cited because the supply of social-media toxicity.
Final month, the WNBA investigated an allegation that racist fan abuse was directed at Reese through the Sky’s 93-58 loss to Clark’s Indiana Fever at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Clark was known as for a flagrant foul on Reese in that recreation.
The league’s investigation was unable to confirm the claims.
Tuesday’s query adopted a season-best efficiency by Reese, who scored 17 factors on 8-of-13 taking pictures with 11 rebounds towards the Liberty amid a gradual begin to the yr.
“I obviously don’t worry about what’s going on online,” Reese stated Tuesday. “I get so much love in person. I haven’t ever had a negative encounter in person, ever, and I’ve been going through this for three years. I’ve never had an encounter in person that was negative. People online are behind a keyboard for a reason.”
That is Reese’s first season taking part in with Atkins, an eight-year veteran whom the Sky acquired in an offseason commerce with the Washington Mystics.
“I know my teammates have my back, my coaches have my back, and that’s all that really matters,” Reese stated. “I don’t have to prove anything to anybody besides myself and my teammates.”
