“Confidence Completely Dropped”: Newly Crowned NCAA Champion Angel Reese Revisits Painful Time During Injury

The journey to being one of the most talked-about athletes in the basketball hemisphere has not been an easy one for Angel Reese. The newly crowned women’s basketball national champion once almost gave up the dream because of nerve-wracking injuries. And her return to the main stage and grabbing the spotlight is a tale of supreme heroics and tenacity.

The LSU star sat down for her first podcast interview appearance after her Tigers clinched the title 102-85 over rival superstar Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes. And she spoke in detail about her back-to-back injury years and the horrible rock bottom she hit from not playing.

Angel Reese fought back from the bottom

Two years ago, the LSU shooting guard did not think she would be wearing the NCAA championship ring on her way to meet the President at the White House. Her 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists from the championship game are nothing when compared to her astonishing mental makeup and gruelling rehab over two years.

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Before transferring to LSU, Angel Reese suffered a Jones fracture on her toe during her time in Maryland. After going under the knife for that and installing a screw in her foot, she encountered a split shinbone the next year. And yet again, Angel Reese underwent surgery, this time to put a rod in her leg to set the shinbone right. After these scarring episodes, Reese started doubting if she’d ever play again.

“My confidence completely dropped. I was like, do I wanna play basketball anymore? Back to back. Like I had high expectations. Everybody thinks I’m gonna do this. But I didn’t even believe I could do it anymore. Because I thought I gained my love for the game back and then I lose it again,” Reese said on the ‘I Am Athlete’ podcast with former New York Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall and co-host Ashley Nicole Moss.

Reese wears a leg sleeve to cover her scars

After having the last surgery in July, Reese made her return three months later. After finally getting the opportunity to start, she averaged 17 points a game during her sophomore year. And ever since, there has been no looking back for Angel. The 2023 Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament shined on both ends of the court, putting on double-double figures in every game of the tournament this year. However, her growing fanbase has always wondered why Reese only sports a leg sleeve on one leg.

Despite being extremely fashionable off-court, the leg sleeve is not a style statement. Rather, it is there to hide the massive scars from her surgeries. However, it was her basketball idols wearing leg sleeves before her that gave her the confidence to pull it off.

“Also, my favorite players, like A’ja Wilson and Te’a Cooper, they also wear it,” she said.

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Reese’s trash-talking post-victory against Iowa’s Caitlin Clark invited tons of headlines and criticisms. And it didn’t stop there as President Biden’s wife, extremely unprecedentedly, invited Iowa to join LSU in their White House trip. Do you think Angel fought hard enough throughout her career to deserve the solo spot in the limelight?