Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese undermined teammate in press conference

Angel Reese was moved to tears Tuesday night following the Chicago Sky‘s 85-66 loss to the New York Liberty. Reese played a solid game, earning the 30th double-double of her WNBA career.

Postgame, Reese was asked if she gained confidence after her performance on Tuesday night, as she received heavy criticism online from fans calling out her poor shooting percentage and high turnover rate to begin the season.

Reese claimed that she wasn’t worried about the perception keyboard warriors have of her. Reese’s answer prompted Ariel Atkins to defend the second-year power forward before Reese undermined the point.

Chicago Sky’s Ariel Atkins had a lecture for the media

Atkins lectured the media, saying that Reese, a 23-year-old woman, was in fact a “kid” who has handled her situation with “grace.” Atkins asked reporters to stick with questions about what happened on the basketball court, specifically wanting questions pertaining only to box scores, calling questions about fan backlash “nonsense” and “irrelevant.”

“Her crown is heavy,” Atkins said of Reese. “So whatever else, like, y’all want to come at her for the way that she acts, she has to build the wall. She has to have the wall. Because if she doesn’t, people will break her down… No, she knows who she is and we ain’t gonna break her down for that.

“So whatever other questions y’all got, like, I’m hoping it’s just about basketball, maybe a box score question, but the kids’ crown is heavy. Like, respect that.”

It’s not the first time the Sky or Reese have shut down questions about non-basketball-related activity, saying that they want to stick to the game during postgame press conferences.

Angel Reese undermined her teammate’s point

The point would be fair enough, but the ever-outspoken Reese didn’t keep it to basketball during the press conference.

Unprovoked, Reese went on a tangent about Coco Gauff, who was in attendance at Barclays Center Tuesday night after winning the French Open, and mixed social issues during her praise of the Tennis athlete.

“Obviously, congrats to Coco,” Reese said while Akins nodded her approval. “She’s a major as a young black woman. I’m super inspired by everything she does, and to see her come show up to a WNBA game obviously shows how much she supports women. She supports women in sports, and I just hope she continues to just be her.

“She’s her and through everything. And I know it’s tough days, and as a young woman with so much fame and so much going on in the outside. She just continues to thrive through, and I’m super inspired.”

Reese made the comment minutes after saying that all she wants to do is “go to work and enjoy my job.”

Look, what makes Reese such a spectacle is her voice. Many of the things she advocates for in women’s sports are admirable.

But she can’t have it both ways. Teammates like Atkins can’t be telling the media to stick to box scores while Reese talks about social issues. That’s just not how discourse works.

Reese undermined her teammates’ point, and the Sky took another “L” in the process.

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