Angel Reese is on prime of the world.
As she closes in on finishing her first season with the Chicago Sky, she has established herself some of the consequential rookies in WNBA historical past. She has surpassed expectations, in addition to information.
This previous Sunday, she broke the only season rebounding file set by Sylvia Fowles with 418 rebounds. She additionally broke the file for probably the most offensive rebounds in a single season with 165, surpassing the mark of 162 set by Yolanda Griffith in 2001. Over the summer time, Reese was on a sizzling streak of 15 consecutive double-doubles. In mid-August, she turned the quickest participant to file her twenty double-doubles.
Her tenacious play and fervent ardour to win has positioned her among the many elite.
As if her on the court docket exploits weren’t sufficient, she is taking these tangibles towards her off the court docket endeavors. She has signed profitable offers with Reese’s, Reebok, Beats by Dre, Xfinity, Elevating Cane’s and Wingstop. Reese is blossoming as a fashionista along with her appearances at occasions just like the Met Gala and by sporting big-name manufacturers similar to Louis Vuitton. Her flamboyant model, poise and company parallels the likes of Florence Griffith Joyner, Venus and Serena Williams and Aja Wilson.
Now she is taking an enormous step on this planet of podcasting with the launch of her weekly sequence “Unapologetically Angel,” a part of Playmaker’s community of podcasts. She launched the primary episode on Thursday.
It’s her probability to set the file straight on numerous issues, notably her relationship with Caitlin Clark. Ever because the historic 2023 NCAA nationwide championship recreation between LSU and Iowa, Reese has been on the receiving finish of racists insults and dying threats on social media, in addition to in particular person. The place to begin got here after she did the “you may’t see me” gesture on the conclusion of the sport, which some perceived as a slight towards Clark.
The racialized and gendered dialogue surrounding the 2 has reached a fever pitch, with some contending that they despise one another. The truth is, the other is true, as Reese shares on her podcast. She additionally addresses the therapy she has acquired by some followers. Reese explains:
Caitlin is a tremendous participant and I’ve all the time thought she was a tremendous participant. We’ve been taking part in one another since highschool. So I feel it’s actually simply the followers, her followers, the Iowa followers, now the Indiana followers, which are, like, they trip for her and I respect that, respectfully, however generally it’s very disrespectful. I feel there’s lots of racism on the subject of it and I don’t consider she stands on any of that.
Reese taking again possession of her story not solely meets the present second, nevertheless it additionally extends a bigger historic custom of Black athletes underneath siege utilizing their very own types of media to talk their minds with out compromise.
Within the early Seventies, Muhammad Ali recurrently appeared on the groundbreaking Black selection sequence Soul! as he was coming off battling the US authorities for his refusal to be inducted into the US Armed Forces on the top of the Vietnam Struggle. On the identical time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made an look on the Black information sequence Black Journal to discuss his conversion to Islam, pushing again towards specter of suspicion and confusion from mainstream white society. Each knew full nicely that the dominant media narrative wasn’t an goal area for them, however Black media areas have been the place they’d really feel validated.
In 2014, Derek Jeter launched The Gamers’ Tribune, which gave athletes the liberty to inform their tales in their very own phrases. That very same yr, LeBron James began his media firm Uninterrupted with the purpose of athletes expressing what it means to be “greater than an athlete.” Within the period of social media, athletes have higher energy of their skill to take again their narrative by podcasting, streaming, tweets, movies and posts.
It’s a medium that the WNBA gamers took benefit of in 2020 after they have been profitable in electing Senator Raphael Warnock and ousting then-Atlanta Dream proprietor and Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler from workplace and, ultimately, from her share of the staff after she made statements crucial of the Black Lives Matter motion.
Angel Reese is following the identical template, and it couldn’t have come at a greater time. Simply as she is paving a path on the ground, she plans on doing the identical on this realm. Earlier than a latest Sky recreation, she advised Swish Enchantment:
That’s form of why I began my podcast. Having the ability to take the narrative and with the ability to have my voice and get up for who I’m and know who I’m. Additionally one other place for different individuals to come back on my podcast and provides their voice, with the ability to be a protected area for individuals. In order that’s what I stay up for with my podcast. I feel generally in life I’ve all the time been unapologetic and it may very well be taken in a great way or dangerous approach, however I’ve all the time stood up for who I’m and with the ability to be tremendous assured inside myself. So I simply suppose that’s why individuals love me as a result of I’m who I’m and that’s why individuals proceed to gravitate in direction of me.
