Angel Reese continues to live up to her role as a leader for the LSU Tigers.
Since last week, Reese has been in the middle of a media frenzy since the Tigers beat the Iowa Hawkeyes in the NCAA women’s basketball championship, fielding questions surrounding the racial undertones of the reaction to Reese in comparison to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.
Once the dust settled around those debates, one that saw many sports greats coming to Reese’s defense, another story entered the spotlight.
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden found herself in hot water when she expressed a desire to have both teams visit The White House in a celebration of women’s sports and the unprecedented viewership of the NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament.
Many found her invitation to be completely unfounded and left fans wondering if the
same grace would be extended to LSU if it had lost to Iowa, whose team is predominately white. Reese held no punches discussing her feelings on the matter. She said the team would not accept a dual invite from the Biden administration. Biden retracted her statement following the backlash.And it seems that LSU has accepted the first lady’s invitation.
There was one question that still lingered:
would Reese join the team? In an interview on ESPN’s SportsCenter, Reese confirmed that she will join her teammates at The White House.“You don’t get that experience ever, and I know my team probably wants to go for sure and my coaches are supportive of that, so I’m going to do what’s best for the team and we’ve decided we’re going to go,” Reese said. “I’m a team player. I’m going to do what’s best for the team. I’m the captain.” ‘
The 6’4″ sophomore said she and her fellow Tigers were initially shocked to see their excellence being overshadowed in order to provide the Iowa team with a figurative participation trophy.
“In the beginning, we were hurt. It was emotional because we know how hard we worked all year for everything,” Reese told SportsCenter..