Superstar basketball player Angel Reese, who trashed-talked her opponent and received backlash for it all, still came out on top — beyond being crowned champion of her sport.
By now, you know that Reese’s LSU Tigers resoundingly defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes and their dynamic lead guard Caitlin Clark to win the NCAA Women’s Championship.
By now you also know that the biting criticism Reese got for showing up Clark — from prominent media members to Twitter trolls — seemed tinged with racial resentment, misogynoir and smacks of a double standard.
Clark, who is white, was celebrated for taunting her opponents, while Reese was denigrated and called everything from a poor sport to “a classless piece of (you know what)” by this media personality.
To her credit, Reese remained unfazed and unapologetic in her post-game press conference, choosing instead to focus on what her victory meant for the little ones watching her.
“All year, I was critiqued about who I was,” Reese said. “I don’t fit in a box that y’all want me to be in. I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto. But when other people do it, y’all say nothing. So this was for the girls that look like me, that’s going to speak up on what they believe in. It’s unapologetically you.”
Aside from helping her team win a championship, the tenacious 6-3 forward from Baltimore forged her way to success through a combination of qualities anyone would find admirable.
The journey she took to reach the pinnacle of her sport is instructive:
- Raised by a single mother and her grandparents, Reese demonstrated her exceptional basketball talent as early as the fourth grade, according to her mother. She would eventually become a rec league sensation as a kid.
- Reese spent her first two years in high school making a 50-minute train and bus commute to school while adhering to a rigorous schedule as a student-athlete.
- In addition to being a star basketball player, she was also a two-time high school volleyball champion.
- At one time, Reese adhered to a grueling summertime schedule as a high school athlete, which included waking up at 5:45 a.m. to workout, followed by working an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift at a youth basketball camp, and then a 5 to 9 p.m. shift at a local hamburger spot.
- By the time she finished high school, Reese had led her team to four straight titles, was named a McDonald’s All-American and emerged as the No. 2 recruit in the nation in 2020.
- Her jersey hangs in her high school’s hall of fame.
- After breaking her foot in the fourth game of her collegiate career at the University of Maryland, she eventually became her team’s best player the following year despite having a rod inserted into her leg.
- After transferring to LSU last year, Reese became the team’s leading player, a national champion and the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
While most of us will never reach those heights of elite athletic accomplishment, Reese’s work ethic, tenacity and unyielding commitment to excellence are worth emulating for any worthwhile life endeavor.
What’s just as satisfying is seeing Reese give Clark, the NCAA Player of the Year, a taste of her own medicine on the biggest stage.
Sure, Reese is being mistreated, and her team is being slighted, especially with reports that First lady Jill Biden wants to invite Iowa, the losing team, to the White House and LSU. That honor is usually reserved for champions (Biden recently walked back those comments).
Still, Reese and her predominantly Black team won. Considering all that she had accomplished before Sunday’s victory, she was a champion before she was named a champion.
And here’s another feather in her cap: The girls (and boys) she inspired with her scintillating performances and brilliant clap backs.
Sadly, there’s nothing those critics can do about it.
Yet, another win.
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