Days After Special Tribute, Emotional Angel Reese Celebrates Shaquille O’Neal’s Ex-Coach

In any sport, heartfelt tributes and emotional celebrations often go hand in hand. A few days back, LSU’s star outfielder, Dylan Crews, stepped up to the plate during a crucial College World Series game against Florida. He smacked a triple, and what does he do next? He performed the iconic ‘Ring Me’ celebration. The LSU baseball team went on to secure a resounding 18-4 victory, adding yet another trophy to LSU’s impressive collection.

Recently, LSU’s Angel Reese, a rising star in women’s college basketball, found herself emotional as she celebrated LSU’s legendary coach, Bob Starkey. This touching gesture came just days after she received a special tribute of her own.

A token of gratitude on social media from Angel Reese

Angel Reese, known for her impressive basketball skills and contributions to LSU’s first women’s basketball title earlier this year, took to Instagram to express her gratitude. The reason behind this emotional moment was to give a special shout-out to coach Bob Starkey.

This post comes months after teammate Kateri Poole, celebrated their victory in the March Madness tournament, sharing a post with multiple photos from the celebration. Reese shared Coach Starkey’s post on her Instagram story, accompanied by a heartfelt caption: “Happy birthday TO OUR OLD GUY! Love you coach. Appreciate you for everything.”

The significance of Coach Bob Starkey in the Maryland native’s collegiate career is highlighted by this touching Instagram post. The impact Starkey has had at LSU is quite extraordinary.

Between 1989 and 2011, he served as the men’s and women’s basketball programs’ coach. Some of LSU’s best athletes, including Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles, Temeka Jonson, Shaquille O’Neal and Stanley Roberts, had the honor of playing under him during this time.

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Talking about sharing an amazing college basketball adventure, Shaquille O’Neal, in his playing days at LSU, ruled the court scoring 21.5 points a game while pulling down 13.5 rebounds and blocking 4.6 shots.

Shaquille O’Neal’s LSU journey

Shaq was the SEC Player of the Year and a 2x first-team All-American. After that, he declared for the NBA Draft in 1992 and accomplished a number of significant feats, including winning the Olympic Gold in 1996, 4 NBA Championships, and the MVP award in 2000.

He continued after that though. He kept a commitment to his mother and received his LSU bachelor’s degree in 2000. Shaq’s passion for learning lasted, inspiring him to get both a doctorate in education and an MBA. What a journey!

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While coach Starkey has coached some of the legends of the game, how many more can you name? Let us know in the comments below!