Before ever playing her first WNBA game, Angel Reese was one of the league’s brightest stars.
A college national champion and first-team all-American with an engaging personality and large online following, Reese came out of LSU as part of a high-profile, star-studded 2024 WNBA Draft class that has the promise to significantly boost interest nationally in women’s professional basketball.
Just seven games into her WNBA career, though, Reese finds her name in the news for a less-than-ideal reason.
The former LSU forward, now a rookie with the Chicago Sky, has been fined $1,000 for failing to make herself available to the media after her team’s 71-70 loss to the Indiana Fever Saturday, with the WNBA announcing the punishment Sunday.
Additionally, the Sky was fined $5,000 for failing to ensure that all players comply with the WNBA’s media policies.
At least some of the postgame intrigue came from a play late in the third quarter, when Sky guard Chennedy Carter shoulder-checked Fever guard Caitlin Clark before the ball was inbounded, knocking the ballyhooed rookie and 2024 No. 1 overall pick to the ground.
After the contact occurred, Reese was seen getting up from the Sky bench and applauding Carter.
Reese and Clark are inextricably linked from their college careers, when their LSU and Iowa teams faced off in the NCAA tournament in back-to-back years. In the first of those matchups, a 102-85 LSU victory in the 2023 national championship game, Reese was repeatedly shown trash-talking Clark in the game’s waning moments.
Given that connection and her reaction to Carter’s foul, Reese would have been a potential voice of interest for reporters covering the game live.
The league’s media protocol requires teams to make two key players and the head coach available after every game in a press conference following a cooling down period of no more than 10 minutes. Any player not present at the press conference may be requested for an interview by media members present at the arena for the game.
Seven games into her WNBA career, Reese is averaging 10.6 points and 8.9 rebounds per game for the Sky, who selected her with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. Her rebounding average ranks her seventh among all WNBA players. She had eight points and a career-high 13 rebounds in the loss to Indiana Saturday.
