LSU basketball star Angel Reese opens up about life after her team’s historical championship win.
In April, when Louisiana State University (LSU) and the University of Iowa played for the NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship, the world witnessed a title match that became so much more than just a final game.
In many ways, it was symbolic of the compelling state of women’s sports, and the decades of work and advocacy that it has taken to get to a place of respect and interest.
The game drew a record-breaking average of 9.9 million viewers (peaking at 12.6); a handful of the young players had inked NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals and spent the season stacking their bank accounts; and the trash talk on the court sent so many spectators and pundits into a tizzy that it became the subject of tweets, online debates, and think pieces for weeks to follow. If you compare the moment to a storm, there’s no debating which player was in the eye of it all: LSU’s standout forward and the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, Angel Reese.
When I talk to Reese via Zoom in July, the 21-year-old rising senior is in the midst of a whirlwind summer. “I never know what’s going on,” she tells me, laughing. “I’m just here to get in the car and go.”
The night before, she was at the ESPYs, rubbing elbows with celebrities — and winning Breakthrough Athlete of the Year. Before that she was in Leon, Mexico, playing for Team USA in the FIBA AmeriCup. Following our conversation — which takes place right after she wraps her Teen Vogue photo shoot in Los Angeles — she is off to Variety and Sportico’s Sports & Entertainment Summit, where she will formally launch an eponymous foundation that is dedicated to empowering young women.
