WNBA star Angel Reese has been receiving a lot of attention since the beginning of her rookie season. While most of the attention has come from genuine basketball fans, a number of overzealous male fans have also taken notice of Reese, prompting her to put them on blast.
Reese, who celebrated her 22nd birthday in May, is a star on and off the basketball court. Despite her rise to prominence, she does not seem immune from having to deal with unrealistic pleas from male fans. According to the Chicago Sky star, many male fans have slid in her DMs requesting that she fly them out. Whether they wanted to be flown out to attend a game or for a date is still to be determined.
On July 13, Reese hilariously addressed her male fans who suffer from the “delusion” that she would ever take them up on that offer.
“Let me just say something… I just want to say one thing,” Reese began in an Instagram video. Smiling, she added, “The delusion of y’all thinking I’m finna fly any of y’all out… The delusion of thinking any one of us are flying y’all out… Be for real… thank you.”
She emphasized her position on the issue by putting on her sunglasses and making hand gestures during the video.
A fan page for Reese and her teammate Kamilla Cardoso reposted the humorous video on X, which had more than 29 million views as of July 15. Reese’s remarks sparked some funny reactions from male fans on social media.
“I mean if you broke just say that,” one person responded.
“it’s giving broke,” another person wrote.
“right hell she talkin bout. I’m waiting on my call from Aja Wilson,” someone else joked while referencing getting two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson to fly them out.
Others criticized Reese for her lack of generosity, given her perceived financial success.
“Damn. Women still be rich, famous and stingy??” a social media user said.
“Chill y’all. It’s not like she’s making NBA referee money or something,” another individual noted.
The amount of money WNBA players earn came into focus following the league’s annual draft in April.
Per the WNBA’s salary structure, Reese’s four-year contract with the Chicago Sky is worth a total of $324,383. She is scheduled to make $73,439 during her rookie year. The final year of the contract is a team option, and she would earn $93,636 if the Sky decided to pick up the option.
Reese has benefited financially from name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals during her college career, but her WNBA salary took some by surprise.
According to data from On3, Reese had an estimated NIL valuation of $1.8 million as of March. During her college years, she landed endorsement deals from Reebok, Topps, and Beats by Dre. Several of her endorsement deals tied her to companies for multiple years.
With all of the popularity surrounding the WNBA this year, the idea of women attracting male admirers fans became a viral moment back in April when one fan tweeted his hopes of reversing roles and becoming a male groupie.
“Man when the WNBA players start getting $100m’s and tricking off and flyin n—gas out on the road>>>”
Several guys joined in, sharing memes of what life would be like if they were stay-at-home husbands for their professional basketball-playing wives.
“Me on basketball husbands after my wife Angel Reese loses her first WNBA finals and they ask me “what do you think about her critics?” said one WNBA fan.
Another tweeted, “Me in the side piece section flicking off the other boyfriends.”
The original post garnered over 9,200 retweets. Even a few WNBA stars responded to the madness.
“We def do this without 100ms,” said Dearica Hamby, forward for the Los Angeles Sparks.
Making it to the WNBA has helped continue to raise Reese’s profile and attract more fans. Her supporters have since been coined the “Reese’s Pieces,” and in June she publicly acknowledged her fan base by name.
“Reese’s pieces where yall at?????” she wrote on X on June 25.
On the court, Reese’s historic streak came to an end on July 13. She broke the WNBA record for most consecutive games with a double-double on July 7. She then extended the impressive streak to 15 games before it was snapped.
She is averaging 13.5 points and 12.0 rebounds per game this season and is in the running for the WNBA Rookie of the Year award.
