Angel Reese is already unpopular with her teammates after publicly criticizing them, and now she’s on the outs with the league as well after backhanding an opponent Wednesday night.
The backhand came when Reese and Washington’s Ailiyah Edwards were fighting for a rebound. The battle for the optimal rebounding position got turned up to another level after Reese backhanded Edwards in apparent frustration.
The foul is Reese’s eighth technical of the season, which, according to league rules, carries with it an automatic one-game suspension.
The one game in which Reese will be suspended? The Chicago Sky’s contest against the Indiana Fever on Friday. So, a late-season matchup between the Fever and Sky that would have been a circle-the-date moment when the schedule came out is now a completely uninteresting matchup that will feature neither Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, nor Sophie Cunningham.
Before Wednesday’s game against Connecticut, Reese voiced her frustrations with her team and organization amid Chicago’s miserable 10-30 season.
“I am very vocal about what we need and what I want,” she said. “I’d like to be here for my career, but if things don’t pan out, obviously, I might have to move in a different direction and do what’s best for me. But while I am here, I’m going to try to stay open-minded about what I have here and maximize that as much as I can.”
“I’m not settling for the same … we did this year. We have to get good players. We have to get great players. That’s a nonnegotiable for me. I’m willing and wanting to play with the best. And however I can help to get the best here, that’s what I’m going to do this offseason. So it’s going to be very, very important this offseason to make sure we attract the best of the best because we can’t settle for what we have this year.”
After Wednesday’s game, Reese backtracked from those comments.
“I probably am frustrated with myself right now,” she said. “I think the language was taken out of context, and I really didn’t intentionally mean to put down my teammates because they’ve been through this with me throughout the whole year.”
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