Angel Reese and teammate decline White House invite after first lady extends offer to the Iowa Hawkeyes

If fans of the Louisiana State University women’s basketball team were hoping to see the ladies visit the White House after their NCAA Tournament win, think again.

Yesterday (April 3), in keeping with tradition, First Lady Jill Biden invited the LSU Tigers to visit. However, a few of the ladies made it clear on Twitter that they weren’t interested. Why? Some believe it’s because Jill invited LSU and The University of Iowa women’s basketball team to the White House.

Jill attended LSU’s thrilling 102-85 national championship victory over Iowa in Dallas, Texas on Sunday (April 2).

And from what she saw, they both deserved to make the trip.

“I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House; we always do. So, we hope LSU will come,” Jill said at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver, NBC Sports reported. “But, you know, I’m going to tell Joe [Biden] I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”

However, breaking tradition by inviting the winners and the runner-ups could be seen as disrespectful to the team that earned their victory. And, according to players’ responses on Twitter, it may have been.

After Jill’s statement spread over social media, LSU star Angel Reese hopped on Twitter. She tagged an article with the first lady’s comments and captioned her post, “A joke.”

Reese’s teammate Alexis Morris seemed to share the same displeasure as she proposed another option other than the White House. “Michelle Obama, can we (LSU National Champs) come [to] celebrate our win at your house?” Morris tweeted.

Reese cosigned the question by retweeting it and saying, “That’s the tweet.”

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith also agreed with the LSU player as he went on Twitter to share his opinion on the matter.

“Hey, Angel Reese,” he started. “I mean absolutely zero disrespect to the first lady, but you are 1000 percent correct. This is a bad suggestion. Runner-ups don’t get invited to the White House. Why are we trying to change it now? I completely agree with you, Angel.”

And before the White House visit discussion, Reese called Barack Obama “My President” after he congratulated her and the team on winning the NCAA crown.

“Congrats to the new champs, LSU women’s basketball! They earned it, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more from them in the years ahead,” Barack tweeted.

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