"I’ll take the ‘bad guy’ role and I’ll continue to take that on and be that for my teammates," Chicago Sky Forward Angel Reese says.
Reese is breaking her silence after declining post-game media requests that resulted in a $1,000 fine for the player and $5,000 for the Sky for failing to ensure all players comply with media requests following the Indiana Fever 71-70 win against the Chicago Sky on Saturday. During this now-infamous game, Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter gave a shoulder shot to Fever’s Caitlin Clark, who was knocked to the floor before an inbound pass during the third quarter. After reviewing the play on Sunday, the WNBA upgraded Carter’s foul to a flagrant-1 violation.
During Monday’s Sky media availability, players Carter and Reese spoke to reporters. Carter said she has no regrets about Saturday’s game and set the record straight that she will play competitively with anyone on the court. “I’m going to compete and play, 100% hard, no matter who it is. … I don’t know Caitlin. I don’t know her from anywhere. But at the end of the day, this is competitive and this is basketball.”
Reese, who cheered on Carter at the end of the third quarter for how she played on the court, defended her teammate during this interview. “She’s taken accountability for what happened and we’ve move forward from that,” Reese said.
While many believe Reese is not supporting other women because she isn’t coddling her opponents, in reality, she is supporting her teammates, sticking beside them when the rest of the world is attacking them beyond the game.
But Reese didn’t stop there.
“The reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person,” she said. “It’s because of me, too. I want y’all to realize that. It’s not just because of one person. A lot of us have done so much for this game. Chennedy has been here before, obviously. There are so many great players in this league that have deserved this for a really, really long time. Luckily, it’s coming now.”
Reese is correct. One person does not make a league. If the critics got their way, there would be one WNBA player with no one left for them to play. There’s a saying in sports that there’s no I in team, and I assure you there isn’t one in league. The game is competitive, and while some may be clutching their pearls because they believed the narrative that the WNBA was just diet-lite basketball, counting women athletes out, the game's physical nature has always existed. On the court, it's competition, and off, it's all love.
But with many layers from race to equitable media coverage shaping a rivalry narrative against Clark and Reese or Clark vs. the entire WNBA, often losing nuance and boiled down to hate toward Clark has led to fans discrediting what the rest of the league has accomplished over the years; the foundation that this impressive WNBA rookie class stands upon. This phenomenon isn't new; it is the toxic side of fandom culture that we all have been guilty of leaning into, forgetting that these athletes are simply doing their job. As the support for the WNBA has grown, that toxic nature has crept in with hatred and harassment beyond lighthearted jokes and memes.
Angel Reese #5 of the Chicago Sky
Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images
In the effort to "grow the game," we must ask, at what cost? Because the love of the game is being overshadowed for SEO clicks, viewership numbers and fan-fueled rivalry-induced revenue gains are not worth the mental and physical health of any of these WNBA players.
During Monday’s Sky media availability interview, the look on Reese's face is one I recognize, a mix of emotions knowing that as a Black woman, if folks are set on you being the villain in someone else's story, you are left with the option to give up or lean into the narrative to pursue the thing you love, in this case, Reese's WNBA dreams. Neither she nor any other WNBA player should have to dim their light to appease the narrative that brings fans, especially if it comes at such a high cost to the league’s players.
(L-R) Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark at the WNBA Draft held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 15, 2024 in New York, New York.
Photo by Cora Veltman/Sportico via Getty Images
In the words of Arielle Chambers, "The WNBA is so important." When removing the toxicity within fandom, you see that each player brings something to the table that makes the WNBA great. Carter, Clark, Reese, etc., can shine their light without having to dim it for another, even if some fans would prefer it that way to fuel whatever storyline they'd enjoy. Let these women play the game full out, respecting the competitive nature like we would any men's sports league, and understand that off the court, they are more than the bad or good guy in some concocted rivalry; they are human, too.
