When the LSU Tigers came off their first championship win in 2023, the scrutiny on the team’s star was unreal. Only Angel Reese knows the pressure she was under that was bordering on toxic. It got worse when the defending champs started the 2023-24 NCAA season under all that attention and lost. Then Reese is mysteriously MIA in four games and her coach, Kim Mulkey doesn’t address it. That just fuelled the Angel trolls to extreme assumptions. A year since that drama, the Bayou Barbie is now Chi-Town Barbie, a WNBA pro and a podcaster. And she’s ‘unapologetically’ setting the record straight.

This week on Unapologetically Angel, Reese pretty quickly addressed her four-game absence early into the show. She admitted to her co-host, Maya Reese, that losing the season opener game to Colorado weighed heavily on the team. The reigning champ’s defeat caused an uproar on social media that did affect the Tigers. Most of the commentary was focused on Reese, that she was supposedly too focused on fashion than basketball, “which wasn’t true at all.”

“So coming back to practice, the vibes was kind of weird,” Reese recalled. “I wasn’t in a good mental space I didn’t feel like I was in a good mental space for my for my own team for myself  and just being able to give my best self.”

The situation gets complicated when Mulkey benched Reese at the game against Kent State. Tensions seemed to boil over and, “Me and Kim Mulkey kind of got into it.” Reese² did state that it’s normal for athletes and coaches to have a tiff and Angel has no bad blood with her coach over it. But Coach Mulkey could tell then that Reese’s mental health was spiralling. So they had a calmer discussion and decided that Reese needed to take a break.

Angel Reese is grateful to her coach

The team never addressed Angel’s absence and rumours abounded. Popularly, there were claims that she was kicked out because of her low academic performance and had to bring up her GPA. Some baser rumors alleged she was pregnant. The rumors only made her decision necessary.

“Knowing myself, I was just like, let me just take this break for myself, for the team, and just being able to have some peace of mind,” Reese said. “That was probably the hardest time of my life, just because I never took a break from basketball, and I didn’t realize mental health was important. My mom came down for Thanksgiving, we made Thanksgiving dinner, and it was just a reset.”

Upon her return, Reese’s teammates and coach supported her. She even thanked Shaquille O’Neal for helping her get thick-skinned to the commentary. She also said on X at that time, “please don’t believe everything you read.”

Mulkey cited “locker room issues” back then but didn’t address the rumors. Reese now says she is grateful for her coach protecting her mental health. What more can an athlete ask of their coach!