“How happy are y’all to see me?”
With those cheeky words, LSU basketball star Angel Reese started the postgame press conference following the team’s 82-64 defeat of Virginia Tech on Thursday. The 2023 NCAA National Champion missed four games during a highly publicized absence from the team. On the court, she clearly didn’t miss a step, contributing 19 points and nine rebounds to the team’s win.
Reese was in good spirits throughout the night, smiling and laughing with teammates, as well as hugging her coach, Kim Mulkey, after the game. She kept the attention on her teammates while speaking to ESPN’s Andraya Carter in an on-court postgame interview.
“My teammates have been holding it down, I’m just super happy to be back with the team,” Reese said. “This atmosphere, I missed it so much. I’m just happy to move forward and be back.”
Angel last played with the team on Nov. 14 when she was benched in the second half of the game. This led to endless speculation about her status with the team, her relationship with Mulkey, her GPA and whether her notoriety is too much. The coach, team and university stayed mum on Reese’s absence, which led the gossip mill to get out of control. And of course, the trolls who didn’t like her confidence during the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball tournament were celebrating her perceived downfall. If you’re one of these people, you need to do some serious soul-searching about how you’re living your life.
During a postgame press conference that included Mulkey and teammate Aneesah Morrow, Reese did not explain her absence, but she did say “taking time to yourself is really important…taking a reset is OK.” She also showed gratitude for those who supported her during her time away from the team and revealed how the experience changed her.
“I want people to realize that I’m not just an athlete, I’m a human. I go through things, we all go through things,” she said. “Being able to have so many people that were super supportive to me this past weekend have really shown me who really cares for me. When you up, everybody loves you. When you’re down, you see who really loves you. Being able to have such supportive people that were here for me through a tough time was really important.”
One of the people Angel leaned on was LSU alum and NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal. She explained that they talk every day and that his advice is crucial to helping her navigate her newfound fame.
“He checked on me, he called me every single day to make sure I was good,” Reese said. “He’s been here before, he knows what it takes. Just being able to have somebody like that was something that was really good for me. He told me when I was right, he told me when I was wrong, he told me what I needed to do to get back to where I am.”
Here’s the hard truth: Unless you’re her teammate or a member of her support system, it’s not your business why she was away from the team. Despite their so-called “amateur” status, college sports are big business, making it easy to forget these athletes are just kids barely out of high school.
Hopefully, now that she’s back on the court, the gossip mill will move on to something else and leave Angel Reese’s private business alone. And moving forward, let’s extend her some grace, so she doesn’t find herself in a similar place anytime in the near future.