Angel Reese has been in the headlines once again to start the 2025 WNBA season. First for her reaction to a flagrant foul by Caitlin Clark, and then through a poor shooting night for the ages.
Reese and the Chicago Sky lost to the defending champion New York Liberty 99-74 in their second game of the season on Thursday night. This followed a 35-point blowout loss to the Indiana Fever last weekend in their season opener. And while the entire team has been struggling, Reese’s stat line against the Liberty was particularly bad.
The former national champion at LSU scored just two points on 0-8 shooting from the floor, although she did pick up 12 rebounds. But to add insult to injury, ESPN sent a push alert out documenting that Angel Reese tied a WNBA record by going 0-7 from within four feet of the basket. It tied the most misses from close range in the last 10 years of WNBA basketball. Apparently that’s a stat that is tracked. Who knew?
During one particular sequence in the first quarter, Reese got several offensive rebounds while missing at the rim and getting multiple shots blocked before finally kicking it out to the perimeter.
There were, of course, tons of social media users who found great schadenfreude in the on-court struggles of Angel Reese. But given everything swirling around her at the moment after the Caitlin Clark confrontation with the WNBA investigating potential racial comments from the Fever game, the ESPN push notification about her bad shooting night may have felt like it was pouring salt in an open wound.
You would have to screenshot every push notification ESPN ever sent to try to think of another time when the app pushed out breaking news on someone having an off-night. ESPN probably hasn’t sent out notis for every time Aaron Judge goes 0-4 with four strikeouts. But maybe that’s a sign of just how great Reese’s celebrity and notoriety is at the moment.
So while the timing can be questioned, there’s no questioning that the sports world is now following her every move, whether good or bad. And at least this time, it’s actually focused on basketball.