NFL
By: Mark T. Wilson
Angel Reese announced that she will miss the remainder of the 2024 WNBA season due to a wrist injury. While this all but locks up Rookie of the Year for Caitlin Clark, it also shines a light on a subject we can now talk about with pride.
As a black male, I just want to say Thank You, Angel Reese. What for, you might ask? Thank you for showing the little girls who look like you and carry themselves like you that there is a place. I’m not saying there wasn’t one in College Basketball or the WNBA before you because there was, but you added that swag that our inner-city kids were told they were wrong to express.
And as much as some people who look like me would want to deny it, Clark has that same flair. That’s what made this little rivalry such a good one. Clark is not innocent of the trash talk or the boasting. Hell, her boasting is what made the LSU/Iowa games relevant. Anyway, let’s get back to what I’m grateful for.
You came into the league with so many critics that there was no way you were expected to succeed. Picked 7th, some even questioned that selection. Your rookie teammate was pegged to be the better pick and yet, well, we know the rest.
As your rookie year progressed, you were labeled a stat stuffer. A Dennis Rodman clone. A person who grabbed rebounds off her own misses. But what they failed to realize was their own ignorance. You were doing what made you a champion at LSU. The same LSU team that beat…Let’s not go there.
What I’m trying to say is, people hate what they can’t understand. The masses expected you to fail. But when you didn’t, they compared you to a player who was put on this earth to be a scorer and facilitator. As I said before in an earlier piece, how can you compare a Rodman skill to a Curry skill? You just can’t. But they had no other way to go.
At 6’3, you were battling players in the post taller and more experienced than you. And yet, you will exit your rookie season as the leading rebounder in the WNBA. You will exit the season as the only player in WNBA history with the most rebounds in a season and the only player to achieve 15 straight double-doubles.
Take a bow, Angel Reese. No matter what you did, they tried to knock you down for it but you held your head high and continued to do it your way. That is the main reason I wanted to say Thank You.
I was there when the WNBA debuted back in 1997. I was there for Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, Tina Thompson, Dawn Staley, and others. But I was never tuned in like I was this season. I could relate to some of the women in the league, but you, you are my younger sister that I took to the park with me. You represent the youth in every shape and form. The good and the bad.
I cannot imagine what it’s like to do something you love only to have people continue to put you down while pulling others up. It has to be hard to keep that composure. Not saying you handled it the best cause you for damn sure showed your ass at times but then, that’s why we love you.
You entered the league with a swag that was missing. Yeah, these older WNBA fans will come for me on that but Angel Reese represented a side the WNBA was dying to showcase. Never mind the missed putbacks or the awkward shots. Continue to be you. Continue to push the envelope. Continue to grow the game of basketball not only for the little girls looking up to you but for the men you have dragged to the WNBA.
Injuries suck. But I know you will come back stronger and better than you were this season. And for that, I want to say Thank You, Angel Reese.
