Press conference with Angel Reese: LSU standout claims to have “seen so much…
After her team’s 94-87 loss to Iowa on Monday night in the 2024 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, Angel Reese, a star player for LSU, sat somberly behind a microphone and considered how much her life had changed since winning the national championship the year before. Her college career may be finished.
It should have been a joyful time to realize a lifelong desire, and it was while it was happening. However, a lot of what happened afterwards has affected the 6-foot-3 junior forward.
Reese has been the subject of criticism and insults ever since her encounters with Iowa star Caitlin Clark in the last moments of the 2023 NCAA championship game. Some of them have been attributed to racism and misogyny, as seen by a subsequently-edited essay in the Los Angeles Times. She has persevered through everything, though, much like the fierce competitor she is on the court.
“I don’t really get to stand up for myself,” Reese remarked on Monday at MVP Arena in Albany, New York, at a news conference following the game. “My guys are excellent. My network of support is excellent. I am aware of my hometown. My family is there to support me. I try to ignore things and just try to be strong, so I don’t really get to speak out about them.
“I’ve experienced a lot. I’ve witnessed a lot. I’ve experienced numerous attacks. threats of death. Someone has sexualized me. Someone has threatened me. There are a lot of things, and each time, I have persevered. I simply want to be a strong support system for my teammates because I don’t want them to think less of me. I remain a human being. That was all the time before I won the national championship. I mentioned the other day that I haven’t felt content since then.
Reese made her remarks following passionate defenses from teammates Flau’jae Johnson and Hailey Van Lith, who were seated on either side of her, following the public disdain that she and her LSU team as a whole had endured over the previous 12 months.
Johnson remarked, “You guys don’t know Angel Reese, so everybody can have their opinion on her.” “Angel Reese is unknown to you guys. Angel Reese is someone I know. The real Angel Reese, I know. The person I see every day is a loving, compassionate, and strong individual. It’s heavy, bro, the crown she’s wearing. She is the kind of colleague who will give you confidence in yourself. When I made the transition from my freshman to sophomore year, Angel gave me the courage to go play with dogs every day and go be a dog.
