Chicago Sky star Angel Reese revealed on the latest episode of her podcast that prisoners found out her mom’s address and started to write her love letters.
Reese, who attended Maryland before transferring to LSU and winning a national championship, said on "Unapologetically Angel" that her mom had to get police involved.
"When I was in college, somehow, some way, these men in jail used to send letters – like love letters. Somehow, one of them got my address, my mom’s address. And my mom had to like do all that and call the police and all that," she said.
"He talking about, ‘When I get out I’m coming for you. I’m going to be with you. We going to have kids.’ Sir, take a timeout."
Reese’s guest, Coco Jones, joked that the person who sent her the weird message should get an extra two years in prison for "scary behavior."
Reese, who is from Baltimore, played two seasons with the Terrapins before she transferred to LSU for her junior and senior seasons. She led the nation in scoring and rebounding during the 2022-23 season with 23 points and 15.4 rebounds per game.
She averaged 18.6 points and 13.4 rebounds per game.
The Sky selected her with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. She averaged 13.6 points and 13.1 rebounds per game in 34 games. Her season was cut short due to an injury.
It was a historic year for the WNBA in 2024 with viewership skyrocketing, the emergence of new stars like Caitlin Clark leading to greater attendance and merchandise purchases and social media engagement flourishing.
There’s no doubt the addition of new stars in the league like Clark, Angel Reese and others, combined with perennial All-Stars like A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart, strengthened women’s basketball.
But for one WNBA prospect, the popularity of the game this year is just "the tip of the iceberg."
"Now that the WNBA has finally gotten its spark and this is the first year that it really popped off, it’s only going to get bigger from here," LSU star Flau’jae Johnson told Fox News Digital while discussing her NIL partnership with the Unrivaled basketball league co-founded by Stewart and Napheesa Collier.
"There’s going to be more stars, more storylines, more basketball players, more teams. That’s the most exciting part is that the league is still growing. It hasn’t even hit that peak yet."
Johnson is rare when it comes to college athletes in today’s NIL space. She prides herself on being one of the most marketable players with her budding rap career along with her social media influence.
But make no mistake, this is a woman who wakes up at 5 a.m. to get shots up to start her day. And she knows that two years from now, when she’s eligible for the WNBA Draft, she will be there waiting to join the pros.
And when she does, Johnson wants to be making history.
"It’s so much that’s going to come with this. There’s going to be first-time, million-dollar contracts. There’s going to be first-time this and first-time that. There’s going to be so much more history broken," she said excitedly.
Johnson believes the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball national championship was a turning point for the sport. It was a game in which she helped the Tigers beat Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes.
Johnson is the latest example of stars being born before they even reach the pros.
"I think college basketball really took it through the roof if you ask me. If it wasn’t for the surge that year that we won the national championship, it wouldn’t be a thing. It would be a thing, but it wouldn’t be as big as it was now," Johnson said.
"That came from college, and it led to the pros with Caitlin and Angel going to the league. And it’s only going to keep doing that."
Along with Johnson, take UConn’s Paige Bueckers. She also has an NIL partnership with Unrivaled, and some believe she can have the same effect as Clark on the WNBA. She will likely go No. 1 overall to the Dallas Wings in the 2025 Draft.
And while they may be considered the "next generation," they’re already having an impact on those coming after them.
"It kind of hit me yesterday," Johnson said after her latest game. "One of my fans tagged me in a TikTok, and a girl had a big [number] four iced-out chain, and she came to our game for her birthday. I’m like, ‘That’s the most important day in your life. Your birthday.'
"We played a terrible team, blew them out by 100 points. She was so happy, and we were able to interact and all of that. But that just goes to show, like, she took her time to do that. My presence was valuable enough to her. So, I feel like I have to do more in that space."
Johnson has dipped her toes in just about every space she can, which requires a strong work ethic to make sure she can help lead the Tigers to another national championship.
But to say the future is bright for women’s basketball would be an understatement. Johnson said there is finally respect for how great these women can be on the hardwood.
"It's always been there," Johnson said of stars in the WNBA. "Stewie’s always been. Sue Bird’s always been there. It’s like the time is now, and once the time is now, you put all the resources, you put all the investments in it to make it bigger and better for the next generation. All the girls are going to do is get better. They’re going to be more confident watching all the girls in front of them."
The 2025 WNBA regular season schedule was released on Monday, and the latest clash between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese will be happening right away.
Clark’s Indiana Fever and Reese’s Chicago Sky will be going head-to-head to open their respective seasons on May 17 – one day after the league’s opening slate the day before.
This rivalry that goes back to their college days at Iowa and LSU quickly translated to the pros, as drama was seen in the Rookie of the Year race as well as their matchups on the court.
Clark went on to win Rookie of the Year this past season after setting numerous rookie and league records, but Reese quickly made her presence known as a fellow WNBA All-Star by impacting Chicago in her inaugural season as well.
Four meetings between the Fever and Sky were had last season, and each was more anticipated than the next as these two tried to best one another to help notch a win for their squad.
But it was Clark’s Fever who pulled off three wins out of the four meetings. In those games, though, Reese tallied more points and rebounds than Clark, though the floor general did best Reese in assists in all four games.
There were also some tense moments in those games, beginning with Reese’s teammate, Chennedy Carter’s flagrant foul on Clark early in the season that made national headlines and sparked tons of sports debate after the veteran guard checked the rookie to the ground in what many described as a cheap shot.
Then, on June 16, Clark was going in for a layup against the Sky when Reese came flying in to try to swat the ball away. Instead, her arm smacked Clark in the head, and she went down hard.
A flagrant 1 foul was called on Reese, who had to defend herself after the game, saying she was simply trying to make a play on the ball and not trying to hurt Clark.
Clark would say the same thing, understanding Reese was just trying to help her team in the moment.
Their performances, both in college and in the pros, have made each of them reach celebrity status that transcends sports. Reese even said on the opening episode of her podcast that the 2023 national championship game between her Tigers and Clark’s Hawkeyes "changed my life forever."
But that change has sometimes come with hate.
"I think it's really just the fans, her fans, the Iowa fans, now the Indiana fans, that are really just, they ride for her, and I respect that, respectfully," Reese said. "But sometimes it's very disrespectful. I think there's a lot of racism when it comes to it."
There’s no doubt Clark and Reese have each played a significant role in growing the game of women’s basketball and women’s sports in general, which led to the WNBA wasting no time getting them on the court immediately for their latest rivalry chapter.
Also worth noting about the WNBA schedule release is the newest franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, who tip off for their first-ever game on May 16 against the Los Angeles Sparks.
The New York Liberty, winners of the 2024 WNBA title, will see their ring ceremony on May 17 before their matchup with the Las Vegas Aces.
The Fever and Sky will have five meetings in the 2025 season.
WNBA star Angel Reese was not having it on Tuesday.
The Chicago Sky rookie went out of her way to respond to a user with less than 300 followers on X after he mocked her for missing layups.
Reese brought up her 39% shooting percentage as something to brag about in her impassioned clapback to the fan.
"Do you realize I got drafted seventh in my class while ‘missing layups’ as a ROOKIE shooting 39% on the year and was STILL an All-Star and that was the worst you’ll ever see me?" Reese wrote. "Or you just laid up with your dog at home hating Adam?"
Reese's response drew mixed responses on social media. Some fans praised her for standing up for herself, taking pride in her performance and expressing confidence about her future.
"[Angel Reese] = leader + competitor + great teammate …scary her best is yet to come!" one fan wrote.
Meanwhile, some critics on social media mocked her even further for boasting about shooting 39%.
"I’m really not trying to hate at all but 39% as a post player is absurd work," a critical user wrote in response.
Reese's shooting ability was not considered a strength of her game going into the WNBA after her championship college career at LSU. At 6 feet, 3-inches tall, Reese was considered a premier defender and rebounder. She lived up to that reputation as a rookie, while proving the doubters of her shooting ability very right.
She averaged 13.1 rebounds per game in 2024 and became the first player in WNBA history with three consecutive 20-plus rebound games. Reese at one point even broke the WNBA single-season assist record on Sept. 1. However, season-ending wrist surgery a few weeks later prevented her from holding the record, as eventual MVP A'ja Wilson broke the record for herself on Sept. 11.
As a shooter, Reese did not just shoot 39% from the field, but also shot 18.8% from 3-point range and just 73.6% at the free-throw line. She missed layups on multiple occasions in her first year.
However, the injury and the poor shooting has not stopped Reese from putting herself out there this year as a young pro sports star.
Her willingness to engage directly with low-profile social media users is resemblent to the infamous habits of NBA veteran superstar Kevin Durant.
In addition to frequent feisty social media exchanges with fans, Reese has become a podcast host and is even starting to make her name in the hip-hop industry.
Reese recently made an appearance on "Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'n Out," a sketch comedy and battle rap improv show.
She launched her own podcast "Unapolagetically Angel" before she was even done with her rookie season and has kept releasing episodes every week, even after her WNBA season ended early due to a wrist injury in early September.
The podcast has stirred controversy multiple times, including the very first episode when she spoke out against fans of rival player Caitlin Clark, alleging they had sent her death threats and made explicit AI images of her and sent them to her family. In her most recent episode, Reese interviewed the ex-girlfriend of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce about their past relationship. This interview brought about a flurry of criticism, particularly from fans of Kelce's new girlfriend, Taylor Swift.
Angel Reese is setting the record straight. Her finances have been a topic of conversation recently, and she refuted claims estimating her net worth stood at $2 million.
At one point during an appearance at ComplexCon in Las Vegas, the Chicago Sky forward's financial accomplishments in the months since she entered the WNBA were mentioned. When Reese's estimated net worth was brought up during the conversation, the basketball star quickly issued a rebuttal.
While Reese stopped short of sharing a specific number as it pertains to her net worth, she said the $2 million figure was "way off," according to Sports Illustrated.
"Is it inaccurate?" panelist and "360 with Speedy" host Speedy Morman asked.
"Yeah," Reese replied.
"It is way off? Is it close?" Morman followed up.
"Way off," the 22-year-old noted.
Reese did share some of the accomplishments her finances have afforded her.
"I’m able to soon retire my mom. I can pay off my mortgage. My family, everybody’s taken care of… One thing about me: I have a really good circle around me, and I think that’s really important," she said.
In October, Reese spoke out about her personal finances, and made it clear that she does not solely rely on her WNBA salary.
"I just hope y'all know, the WNBA don't pay my bills at all," Reese said at the time. "I don't even think it pays one of my bills, literally."
Reese earned around $73,439 during her rookie season with the Chicago Sky, per data from Spotrac.
Reese secured several name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals as she rose to stardom at LSU. Reese ultimately became one of the highest-earning NIL athletes in the U.S.
Many of those deals continue to provide financial gains. Earlier this year, Reese launched her "Unapologetically Angel" podcast. She has also inked an endorsement deal with Hershey’s for her "Reese's Pieces" merchandise collection.
Furthermore, Reese has a shoe deal with Reebok and has agreed to compete in the inaugural Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball league.
The professional women's league was co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier and will debut in January. Athletes who compete in the new league are expected to earn the highest average salary in women’s professional sports league history.
