Angel Reese Says WNBA Popularity Not Just Because of ‘One Person,’ Claims She’s Willing to ‘Play the Bad Guy’

Angel Reese received much negative attention after standing up and applauding when Caitlin Clark was victimized by a hard foul on Saturday; however, instead of trying to correct that “bad guy” image, she’s leaning into it.

On Monday, Reese spoke to reporters to discuss the aftermath of Saturday’s game. But she also talked about the state of play in the WNBA and who is responsible for the league’s surge in popularity.

“It all started from the national championship game,” Reese said.” I’ve been dealing with this for two years now. Understanding, yeah, negative things have probably been said about me, but honestly, I’ll take that because look where women’s basketball is. People are talking about women’s basketball (who) you would never think would be talking about women’s basketball.

“People are pulling up to games. We got celebrities coming to games, sold out arenas, just because of one single game. And just look at that. I’ll take that role. I’ll take the bad guy role. And I’ll continue to take that on and be that villain for my teammates. If I wanna be that, I know I’ll go down in history. I’ll look back in 20 years like the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me too. I want y’all to realize that.”

There’s a degree of truth to what Reese is saying. Six different networks have seen record numbers for WNBA games at about the midway point of the season. Caitlin Clark is the primary reason for this, but some games she wasn’t involved in have also done well.

However, when you look at attendance, Clark’s impact is felt acutely.

So, the final verdict? Take Caitlin Clark away, and no one is talking about a revival of the WNBA to any serious degree. Take Angel Reese away, and it wouldn’t make much of a difference.