Reese anxious to bond with Cardoso in WNBA
NEW YORK – Angel Reese certainly doesn’t lack for confidence.
She looked like a star ready to take over the league as she strolled on the orange carpet, posing for photographs before the WNBA draft in a sparkly black dress, befitting her self-proclaimed moniker “Bayou Barbie.”
That wasn’t the case two weeks ago after a defeat to Iowa in the NCAA Tournament when Reese broke down crying and said she had a challenging year. The year included being benched early in the season and missing four other games for reasons that still have not been explained.
But she did address the perception that she was a villain.
“I don’t really get to speak out on things just because I try to ignore and I just try to stand strong. I would still sit here and say, ‘I’m unapologetically me.’ I’m going to always leave that mark and be who I am and stand on that,” Reese said after that Iowa loss.
Reese put together an excellent season, averaging 18.6 points and 13.4 rebounds per game and winning the SEC Player of the Year award.
The Chicago Sky drafted the LSU star with No. 7 pick in the WNBA draft, and she says she lives by the motto, “Every day the sun don’t shine, that’s why I love tomorrow.”
And with the increased eyeballs on the league this year because of her and some of her contemporaries (including one whose last name is Clark), Reese is more than ready for the spotlight.
“We need to market around that,”
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert, with the understatement of the year, said before the April 15 draft.
The Sky are coached by Hall of Famer Teresa Weatherspoon, who was coached by LSU coach Kim Mulkey when she was an assistant at Louisiana Tech.
“Knowing the conversations were so good, she felt like a mother to me. Being able to be a black woman as a head coach,” Reese said. “I just knew everything they were bringing to the table. I’m super excited for this move and looking forward to getting to Chicago.”
Before the draft, Reese said it didn’t matter to her where she got drafted but going into the right fit and a chance to showcase her skills, which included 61 double-doubles in the last two seasons.
“I want to be a rookie again. I wanna be knocked down by vets and I wanna be able to get up and grow and be a sponge, so I’m just super excited to play with amazing players and against amazing players,” Reese said. “This league is really competitive, and I’m a competitive player, so I wanna play against a lot of players.”
Reese says she is looking forward to bonding with new teammate, former South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso, who went No 3 to the Sky.
Cardoso had a prediction for the season.
“She’s a great player and I’m a great player. Nobody’s gonna get more rebounds than us,” Cardoso said. “I think we are going to do great things together.”
Caitlin Clark, who went No. 1 in the draft to the Indiana Fever, will join former South Carolina forward-center Aliyah Boston, last year’s No. 1 overall pick.