ESPN8:33 AM ET4 minute read
Angel Reese on White House visit: “I will do what is best for the team”
LSU star Angel Reese says she’s a team player and shares her take on the White House invitation.
LSU star Angel Reese said Friday she will visit the White House with her team, days after she suggested celebrating her national championship with former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama instead, rather than President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
Reese made the suggestion after saying she was not inclined to accept an apology from Jill Biden for suggesting that both LSU and runner-up Iowa be invited to the White House. President Biden did not implement this idea and only invited LSU and the Connecticut men’s national champion.
On Thursday, LSU confirmed that it had accepted President Biden’s invitation to visit the White House. There is no fixed date for the visit.
Reese said Friday that she would attend with her team.
“In the beginning we were injured – it was emotional because we know how hard we’ve worked for everything all year,” Reese said on Friday at the “SportsCenter”.
“You don’t have that experience [to go to the White House] ever and I know my team probably definitely wants to go and my coaches are supporting me so I’m going to do what’s best for the team and we’ve decided we’re going.
“I’m a team player. I’ll do what’s best for the team. I’m the captain.”
After LSU’s win, coach Kim Mulkey said she would go to the White House by invitation.
Vanessa Valdivia, a spokeswoman for Jill Biden, said the first lady did not disrespect LSU and her comments should applaud the historic game and all female athletes. With their 102-85 triumph over the Hawkeyes, LSU’s point totals were the highest ever by a single team in a championship game. The 187 combined total shook the previous mark. The game also drew a television audience of 9.9 million, a record for a women’s NCAA title game.
During a performance in Denver on Monday, Jill Biden praised Iowa’s athleticism and congratulated both teams. She also said that as part of the longstanding tradition of champions visiting the White House, Iowa should also come “because they played such a good game.”
Reese called Jill Biden’s proposal “a joke” on Monday.
Noting the racial dynamics involved, some social media commentators said that only winners should be rewarded with a visit to the White House and that including both teams would hamper the performance of LSU’s predominantly black team. The Iowa team is mostly white. Others pointed to the important role of black women in Democratic Party politics.
President Biden was Obama’s running mate and vice president for eight years. Obama, meanwhile, has actively campaigned for Biden in the 2020 election.
Reese was criticized on social media for mockingly waving her hand in front of her face towards the end of the game while staring at Iowa star Caitlin Clark. Clark, The Associated Press Player of the Year, made a similar gesture like no one else during Iowa’s win over Louisville in the Elite Eight.
Reese said she doesn’t think that if LSU lost to Iowa, they would have gotten the same praise as the Hawkeyes from Jill Biden.
“If we lost, we wouldn’t be invited to the White House,” she added. “I remember she made a comment about both teams being invited for sporting reasons. And I said, ‘Are you saying that because of what I did?’ Things like that bother me because at the end of the day you’re a woman. White, black, it doesn’t matter, you’re a woman, you should stand behind us above all else.”
During LSU’s championship parade through campus Wednesday night, a smiling Reese continued to wave her hand in front of her face among the waves to cheering fans as she sat on the back of an orange convertible Corvette.
Reese’s expressiveness on and off the pitch has sparked increasing interest in her. According to Canada Sports Betting, in the two days after LSU’s national title win, Reese gained 500,000 Instagram followers, taking her total follower count to over 1 million.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.