Angel Reese is setting the record straight about why she took a two-week hiatus during her final season on the LSU women’s basketball team.
The Chicago Sky rookie was mysteriously absent from games for two weeks in November, and a lack of explanation from both Reese and coach Kim Mulkey sparked a whirlwind of speculation as to why she wasn’t around.
No, she wasn’t pregnant and she didn’t have a failing GPA. She didn’t even fight with Mulki as the rumor mill suggested. Instead, Reese was taking a break for her mental health.
In A Discussed on his podcastAlong with co-host Maya Reese on Unapologetically Angel, she explained the top-ranked Tigers, fresh off their NCAA Championship win, had lost their first game of the season against a lower-ranked Colorado team.
Reese said his team “wasn’t going to lose to them” and the loss caused “a whole lot of uproar” on social media, with people accusing him of not focusing on the season ahead.
Reese said the energy in practice and among his teammates was “pretty weird” after the loss And two weeks off before their next game didn’t help.
In the next game, against Kent State, Reese did not play in the second half.
She said during the game, she and Mulkey “got into it about something … that’s normal,” so Reese “respectfully” sat out the second half.
After the game, she and Mulkey decided it would be best for Reese to take some time off.
It was around this time, Reese said, that she was having a hard time balancing social media with the rest of her life, especially after she exploded online after winning the championship the season before.
“I didn’t feel like I was in a good mental space for my own team, for myself, and just being able to give my best self,” Reese said.
“And I took the time off … and it wasn’t because of all the other things, it was me and Coach Mulkey being able to have that kind of relationship,” Reese said.
She said she chose not to go to the Cayman Islands Classic with her teammates in November. Instead, his mother came to visit for Thanksgiving dinner, giving Reese a chance to “reset”.
“It was probably the hardest time of my life, like, I never took a break from basketball, and I didn’t realize that mental health was, like, important, like, and I didn’t really realize that,” Reese said.
During her time off, Reese said she kept in touch with her teammates and cheered them on from home.
“When I came back, it was fine, I felt like myself again,” Reese said.
Reese spoke highly of her relationship with Mulkey and said she appreciated that her coach didn’t tell the world where she was during her time off.
Outsiders “made assumptions about what was going on,” Reese said, but Mulkey “protected my brand.”
“And a lot of people didn’t think she protected me,” Reese said. “She protected me the best she could, and I will always respect that from her.”
Rees said she felt her attitude was “contagious to other people” at the time.
“I wasn’t in a good place like I was inside, and I didn’t want to be a cancer in the locker room,” Reese said.
“People don’t realize, like, you can really feel like you’re at the top and then feel like you’ve kind of hit rock bottom,” she said. “It was just the one time I really needed. I think it really helped me in life.
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