“History in the making.” That’s the praise Angel Reese received from the former NBA star Dwyane Wade after she shattered the rookie record for most double-doubles. The strong bond between the two has been evident throughout the season, with Wade even showing up to support Reese at several Chicago Sky games. Now as Reese enjoys her offseason and keeps busy hosting guests on her podcast, it was Wade who took the spotlight during his appearance.

The former Miami Heat legend appeared on Unapologetically Angel’s podcast and shared his thoughts on the Sky forward’s so-called ‘villain persona,’ shaped by media attention and her high-profile rookie rivalry against Caitlin Clark. He kicked off the conversation by pointing to where it all began—Reese’s famous John Cena gesture during the 2023 NCAA Final.

“Everyone has their own, you know, media that’s on them and covering them a certain way. Yours went the way that uh, is unfortunate from the standpoint if you have to be looked at as the bad guy. Yeah, um, but you such a, you such a hero in so many other places and so many other lanes that like your real friends, your real fans, the people who love the way you play like and have a daughter who looks up to you,” stated Wade.

He concluded his opinion by saying, “We don’t even like that’s we, that’s laughable to us because we know that, that’s lazy like they’re doing some lazy marketing and media just by trying to create a villain and a good guy.” 

But it’s not just Wade who expressed the issues with the media; Angel Reese herself has voiced her frustrations about how the media has portrayed her. “I can’t trust any of y’all [media]. So I’m just letting you know — short and sweet,” Reese stated in an interview, accusing the press of twisting her words. Well, she has faced a fair share of media scrutiny throughout her rookie year.

It started in the second month of her rookie season in what was a game against the Indiana Fever, where Reese committed a flagrant foul on Clark. Following that incident, a reporter asked Reese if she was truly comfortable with her so-called ‘villain’ persona. Some media figures even went so far as to label her as ‘bitter and jealous’ of her rival, Clark. However, during her conversation with Dwyane Wade, Reese raised an intriguing follow-up question, eager to gain more insight into the rivalry discussion.

Dwayne Wade’s take on the rookie rivalry getting compared with Magic and Bird

After Wade wrapped up his thoughts on how the media has been shaping the narrative around the much-talked-about rookie rivalry, the 22-year-old forward had an interesting question, which seems to have drawn inspiration from WNBA President Cathy Engelbert’s remarks. “How do you see that cuz everybody always like makes a comparison to Magic and Larry and like I wasn’t in the era where I could watch that I, I didn’t watch that so. But you were able to see that, so like how do you see the comparison?” asked Reese.

The 3x NBA champion chuckled as he responded to Reese’s question, lightening the mood by playfully asserting he is not that old to have played during the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird rivalry era. However, he later said, “What you hear is that lot of people say Magic and Larry like they saved the brand of the NBA right? Because now you had, you know this amazing player that was black who you know can smile and make everybody smile and just had the game and the personality and everything. Then you had this player who was white who had the toughness who had the game. It was just a perfect market strategy at the right time. They both were winners, both were Champions.”

A few weeks ago, Cathy Engelbert found herself in the spotlight after addressing the intense discussions surrounding the league’s rookie rivalry. “There’s no more apathy. Everybody cares. It is a little of that Bird-Magic moment if you recall from 1979, when those two rookies came in from a big college rivalry… And so we have that moment with these two,” Engelbert had explained but her remarks didn’t sit well with some players in the league, sparking a backlash.

Dwyane Wade appeared to echo Engelbert’s remarks during their discussion, as he said, “When you look at that people like to look at black and white and they say okay this is the, the two people (Reese and Clark) who are doing the same thing for the game that Magic and Bird did for the game. And a lot of it in a lot of ways are true from the standpoint of how it’s marketed. It’s nothing different, nothing has changed from the standpoint of how someone’s going to market something,” the NBA legend concluded.

The rookie rivalry between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark has kept fans buzzing, and the media’s influence on that narrative is a hot-button issue. Now that both players are soaking up the offseason, fans will have to wait until next year to see their magic back on the court. It’ll be fascinating to see what unfolds in their rivalry as the next season approaches.