Angel Reese embraces villain role vs. Caitlin Clark with 'Joker' themed Reebok sneakers
Angel Reese is embracing the villain role on Sunday as the Chicago Sky square off against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. In the highly-anticipated showdown, Reese will rock a pair of Joker-themed Reebok Solution custom kicks.
The two teams last met on June 1, when the Fever escaped with a narrow 71-70 victory. In the loss, Reese recorded eight points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Clark tallied 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
In the heated matchup, Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter committed a Flagrant I foul on Clark, tossing her to the ground while the Fever inbounded the ball. From the bench, Reese cheered on Carter’s aggression.
After the game, both Carter and Reese received significant backlash. However, Reese did not apologize and instead, welcomed the criticism.
“People are pulling up to games,” Reese said. “We got celebrities coming to games, sold out arenas, just because of one single game. And just look at that. I’ll take that role. I’ll take the bad guy role. And I’ll continue to take that on and be that villain for my teammates.
“If I wanna be that, I know I’ll go down in history. I’ll look back in 20 years like the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me too. I want y’all to realize that.”
Reese and Clark’s debut showdown in the WNBA averaged over 1.5 million viewers, the fourth-largest WNBA audience in the past 22 years, according to Sports Media Watch. On Sunday, the pair will look to make history again as they square off at noon ET on CBS.
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Angel Reese off to a hot start in the WNBA
Through 12 games, Reese is averaging 12.2 points and 10.0 rebounds per game while shooting 37.8% from the field. The Chicago Sky are currently 4-8 and fourth in the Eastern Conference Division’s standings.
On Wednesday, Reese may have had her best game yet. The 6-foot-3 forward exploded for a career-high 20 points and 10 rebounds on 8-10 shooting. Despite Reese’s excellent performance, the Sky fell 83-75 to Connecticut Sun.
During an interview with CBS Sports on Wednesday, the Chicago Sky rookie pulled back the curtain on how she has adjusted to playing at the next level.
“I have a lot more improvement for growth offensively, but I think I’ve done a great job so far,” Reese said. “My transition has been great. It hasn’t been a super big, huge surprise because Kim Mulkey prepared me for this moment at LSU. Our practice was like four hours. We were ready. We were working. I thought it was gonna be harder.”