Angel Reese is a celeb in each and every sense of the phrase. In spite of Louisiana State’s loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes within the Ultimate 4 of March Insanity, Reese ended her collegiate profession on a top, strolling away with a bunch of awards and damaged data, in addition to an access into the WNBA.
On April 15, Reese, extra affectionately identified via lovers because the “Bayou Barbie,” will likely be decided on via one of the crucial league’s 12 groups along a few of her former NCAA competition grew to become draftees, together with Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso, and Aliyah Edwards. PS stuck up with the draft select forward of the large evening, the place Reese unfolded about her collegiate legacy, in addition to probably the most targets she has for the W.
A Glance At Angel Reese’s Legacy
Whilst at LSU, the ahead become identified for her daring gameplay at the court docket, which steadily contains unapologetic trash communicate, contemporary lashes, and edges laid to the gods. That most probably may not alternate. It is how she earned the nickname “Bayou Barbie” and it is served as a illustration that ladies athletes — and extra particularly Black girls athletes — may also be precisely who they’re on the planet of game.
Reese’s infamous crown, alternatively, may no longer make it to the league. You’ve gotten most probably noticed the jeweled tiara put on Reese’s head throughout LSU’s pregame ritual. All the way through her profession, it is symbolized that Reese is “the queen,” LSU’s Amani Bartlett (bestower of the crown), informed the Related Press. However it seems that the athlete is drawing near her subsequent transfer with a contemporary get started mindset, doubtlessly leaving the crown in the back of.
“I have no idea if we’re going to see [the crown] within the WNBA,” Reese tells PS whilst operating a predraft shift at Elevating Cane’s in Big apple. “That used to be one thing that I did at LSU and I need to simply flip over a brand new web page and get started a brand new bankruptcy.”
That stated, there’ll all the time be a figurative crown on her head — and it is a heavy one, Reese admits. The 21-year-old has confronted relentless assaults from the general public all the way through her collegiate profession, steadily being pitted in opposition to Caitlin Clark and villanized for a similar gameplay that is made her the sort of bold participant. “I have been via such a lot. I have noticed such a lot. I have been attacked such a lot of instances. Demise threats. I have been sexualized. I have been threatened,” Reese stated in a post-game interview after LSU’s loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes throughout the NCAA match.
What You Can Be expecting From Angel Reese within the WNBA
As Reese enters the WNBA, she’s hoping for a blank slate and to concentrate on rising girls’s sports activities along gamers like Clark. For context, the NCAA girls’s championship ultimate raked in 18.7 million audience, greater than any faculty or skilled basketball recreation since 2019, .
“It is loopy how the sport’s going presently and with the ability to surpass the lads . . . it is thrilling and I believe our video games are so a lot more attention-grabbing presently,” Reese says. “Such a lot of persons are tuning in and staring at us and I adore it.”
Now, Reese is raring to look how the passion interprets to the WNBA. “Having the ability to take this to the W is the place you wish to have to do it at and I believe they deserve it, particularly the vets — they have got executed an ideal activity and laid the bottom for us.”
Alexis Jones is the senior well being editor at POPSUGAR. Her spaces of experience come with girls’s well being, psychological well being, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, variety in wellness, and protracted stipulations. Previous to becoming a member of POPSUGAR, she used to be the senior editor at Well being mag. Her different bylines may also be discovered at Girls’s Well being, Prevention, Marie Claire, and extra.