“Yeah, me and Angel, we aren’t as close as we used to be,” Flau’jae Johnson had revealed about her changing relationship with Angel Reese—her former LSU teammate with whom she spent two seasons and helped lead the Louisiana State Tigers to the NCAA championship in 2023. If that wasn’t enough, Reese’s recent choices and comments on her podcast seem to further highlight the growing distance between them. But before we get to that…

With the 22-year-old leaving LSU for a blistering rookie year with the Chicago Sky (seventh overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft) and Johnson currently preparing for her Junior Year, this was a fallout nobody saw coming. The growing animosity had largely been a hush-hush affair until the two players’ mothers decided to take it all out publicly. Earlier this year, Reese’s mother took to social media to direct a veiled yet pointed dig at Johnson’s mother, Kia Brooks on Instagram. “Folks pls do not send me long text msgs with a bunch of grammatical errors it gives me a headache, how do I know you said what you said if I can’t understand what you’re saying?”

And it definitely didn’t go unnoticed as Brooks also put out a shocker: “You definitely know about grammar errors when your daughter got a 2.0-or-less grade point average. Stop being petty, fake and hateful, and take responsibility for you and your daughter’s actions.” The aftermath even saw two more significant incidents—the player reportedly getting benched due to the incident involving the mothers, and later clapped back at Flau’jae’s mother—that confirmed the enmity had reached a point of no return, which the Sky player further solidified on the recent episode of ‘Unapologetically Angel’.

An interesting fact: How did Angel Reese clap back against Kia Brooks? After the WNBA star graduated from LSU in May this year, she posted on X, “So now what? what was said? oh okay that’s what i thought. I graduated from THE LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY IN 4 YEARS ON TIME. I thought somebody without a college degree said sum”. 

Sitting down with former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade as a special guest, the conversation covered a range of topics, but it was during the “More or Less” segment that Reese took a moment to share her thoughts on some of her favorite college basketball players she’s eager to watch this season. Interestingly, her former teammate and friend’s name didn’t even come up in the conversation.

As Angel Reese gears up for her first season not playing college basketball, she said, “Oh my gosh it’s my first year not playing college basketball and I miss it so much but you know it’s go Tigers I’m super excited to see my girl Aneesah Morrow that’s my favorite player this year. I’m excited also to see Juju, I’m excited to see Paige ay, and I’m really excited to see who is gonna draft this year.”

It’s surprising, especially considering that just a few months ago, Reese was showering her former teammate Flau’jae Johnson with praise and wishing her luck ahead of the ESPY awards. “She’s (Johnson) done so many great things. Being able to still see her thrive and excel, I remember we were there last year together,” Reese said back in July.

Yet, this time around, Johnson didn’t make Reese’s watch list, raising eyebrows among fans and followers. But wasn’t the 20-year-old absence justified, since…

Flau’jae Johnson didn’t have Angel Reese featured in the top five picks she rolled out on her podcast

Johnson first opened up about her shifting friendship with Reese at the beginning of last month. “Yeah, me and Angel, we aren’t as close as we used to be. But I still support her 1000 percent. I was proud of her, just being in the W[NBA] and breaking records,” told LSU guard to The Post. However, what came surprising to many was her selection of players on her podcast with Mikaylah Williams.

During a recent episode of her podcast, Johnson posed an intriguing challenge to LSU teammate. She asked Williams to rank her top five LSU graduates, but with a twist: Johnson would name the players, and Williams had to rank them based on her personal preference. When Johnson kicked off the list with the legendary Shaquille O’Neal, it was no surprise he took the top spot.

However, it was quite surprising to see that the other four names that followed didn’t include Angel Reese at all. In an interesting twist, Johnson also included herself in the rankings and was named second by Williams.

While it’s hard to say if that early-season incident has had a lasting effect on the relationship between Reese and Johnson, it has definitely added some complexity to their friendship. In a surprising turn of events, Johnson’s mother later dismissed the idea of her daughter joining the Chicago Sky in the WNBA, expressing a preference for the Los Angeles Sparks instead, where Johnson could team up with Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson.

Even if favoritism fades, maintaining a level of mutual respect for one another remains evident and important.