Louisiana State University women’s basketball forward Angel Reese took to social media to clear the air about two hot topics orbiting her life days before the 2024 NCAA Women’s Tournament.
One of the controversies is the dissolution of Reese’s high-profile relationship with Cam’ron Fletcher, another top college basketball player out of Florida State University. According to Reese, the two are no longer together.
“Yeah I’m single. I don’t got no man. Don’t attach me to no man. That’s all I’m gonna say,” Reese announced on her Instagram Live. “I am single, but I’m not ready to mingle.”
Adding, “I’m just focusing on my college career, I’m focusing on school. That’s all I’m focused on right now, and I’m focused on me. I’m not focused on nobody else.”
The Bayou Barbie said that she met in 2022 and that they developed “a genuine relationship,” but it was not until June 2023 that she confirmed their relationship on 1 Star Recruits podcast, saying, “Cam’Ron is my boyfriend, yes!”
Angel Reese confirms breakup with St. Louis superstar Cam’Ron Fletcher pic.twitter.com/ZJMFBGox68
— Blanco Tarantino TV, LLC (@BlancoTarantino) March 20, 2024
In the episode, she expounded by saying that with them both playing basketball, they have an understanding of how busy each other is. She explained, “We both play the same sport so we understand each other’s schedule. I think that also helps.”
Over the last year, the two even got their names tattooed on each other. Fletcher got “Angel” tattooed on his arm and Reese has his name in red ink tattoo.
Just as she is a top player, so is he. Since being at FSU, he was been the team’s second-leading scorer and top rebounder in the 2022-2023 season. The 2023-2024 season ended for him when the senior tore his ACL for the second time, an injury that might compromise his path to the NBA.
Still, Reese was there by the guard’s side, even posting a picture on her Instagram Story on Jan. 23 with him before he went in for surgery for the leg injury.
“God, please protect Cam’Ron as he has surgery today! I love you bookies!” she wrote on her Instagram Story, Women’s Health reports. “God gives his toughest battles to his toughest soldiers! You’ve been through so much and this is so small to a giant. Road back to recovery. I’ve got your back. Let’s do this!! @camron.”
On Feb. 2, the St. Louis native posted pictures of himself on social recuperating. Reese, during those happier times, wrote, “I love you handsome boy! Team Fletch!”
Both college athletes, who revealed their relationship last summer, seem to have deleted all of the photographs of themselves together on their Instagram accounts. The two also sport matching tattoos of each other’s names.
Yet, Fletcher still has three videos of Reese and himself on his TikTok profile, which shows them working out in the gym in February, and another post where he explained why he was afraid to lose her.
“Because she brought out a side of me [I ain’t] know I had. When my emotions high you calm me down n make me feel like everything gonna be alright,” he wrote over a video. “I can’t predict the future but I know it will be amazing cause I got you with me.”
The other controversy has to do with what she says were some explicit AI pictures of her that recently landed on social media, which Reese also addressed on her Live as well.
First, Reese denied that the pictures were real, noting that she is a victim like other “pretty basketball players.”
“Y’all really don’t … understand. It’s bigger than basketball,” she said, adding, “Apparently, I’m just like this … I don’t know … I’m pretty. So, this happens to a lot of other pretty basketball players. I think it happened to Skylar Diggins before.”
Reese said her agent had someone remove the images from social media immediately and blasted the cyber geek who made the images and pushed them out.
She further stated about the people who posted the images, “They just want to find weird ways to like sexualize me.”
“If I didn’t look the way I look y’all wouldn’t be doing this. And I’m Black, I’m pretty, I’m beautiful, and bit have an appeal,” she continued. “And … it’d be grown men like 50 years old. It’d be weird.”
Many on social media weighed in, accusing Fletcher of leaking the photos.
“Ex dropped your nudes and you are screaming Ai,” one person wrote on Instagram. Another said, “He was corny for uploading them nudes. Was he her man or a hater! Either way it go Angel has talent and skills that can be taken from he , she young life is about experiences…. All n—s not corny like that either so I hope that don’t leave her traumatized. Focusing on self always is best.”
Not all people pointed fingers at Fletcher. Some took her at her word that an older male might have done it.
“That’s bogus man that’s a little girl. People shouldn’t even think like that man that’s a kid. shame!” an X user tweeted.
Another tweet said, “These type of image attacks are just the beginning unfortunately.”
Some people said that they didn’t believe the baller’s stories, including one who posted, “Yeah right. Well I’ve already got them saved and I’m not deleting them either.”
Send it to me
— ElroyfrmBdn (@KadoHopoutboyz) March 20, 2024
Reese has a very brash and bodacious story on and off the court. Sometimes, this brings negative attention to her — but the pictures don’t help.
In addition to how big her personality is in the sport, she also has been a force on the court. As a result, she has brought a lot of attention to women’s college basketball since joining the University of Maryland in 2020 and then transferring to LSU in 2022.
The 2023-24 women’s college basketball regular season made history with a remarkable 37 percent increase from last season in viewership across ESPN platforms.
Featuring a total of 81 games, this season marked the highest viewership on ESPN platforms since the 2008-09 season, with an average of 476,000 viewers per game on ESPN and ABC.
Notably, the 2023-24 regular season set a new record for ESPN platforms, with viewers collectively tuning in for over 2.6 billion total minutes of live women’s college basketball games.
