Angel Reese Declares For The WNBA Draft In Stunning Photoshoot
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Women's Health cover star Angel Reese is headed to the WNBA.
Today, the 6-foot-3 “Bayou Barbie” announced that she's officially declaring for the 2024 WNBA draft. Naturally, she did it by way of a new Vogue photoshoot.
In the pics, Angel poses with a basketball and a crown, referencing the crown she brought to her final March Madness game.
"BAYOU BARBIE⏩WNBA," she captioned the photos. "all that rah-rah never was the icon issue. Magazines, i’m covering the icon issue…VOGUE, I got REAL issues.💋"
In an accompanying interview, Angel explained her decision to announce the news via Vogue.
"I didn’t want anything to be basic,” she said, telling the outlet that she was inspired by Serena Williams breaking the news of retirement with a Vogue fashion shoot.
“I’ve done everything I wanted to in college,” she added. “I’ve won a national championship, I’ve gotten [Southeastern Conference] Player of the Year, I’ve been an All-American. My ultimate goal is to be a pro—and to be one of the greatest basketball players to play, ever. I feel like I'm ready.”
Angel, 21, has been a huge name in women’s college basketball over the past few years. She’s now one of the highest-earning college athletes—and has a massive social media following. Angel had a fifth year of eligibility in the NCAA, which she is foregoing to enter the WNBA draft.
While Angel has held her own through an impressive season for LSU, it all came to an end on Monday night when the Tigers lost 94-87 to the Iowa Hawkeyes and Caitlin Clark.
Last October, Reese told WH that she hadn't made a decision on whether or not to enter the WNBA draft, adding that she's going to "go with my heart and figure out what I want out of my career."
Here’s everything to know about Angel's prospects in the WNBA.
She’s currently a senior at Louisiana State University.
Angel hasn’t been screwing around on the court. She was voted the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player in 2023, and she’s built up a huge social media following as the result of her impressive play. She’s also averaged 19 points a game during this season, according to her school bio.
“Man or woman, in my opinion, there isn’t a player out there who’s impacted the game as much as Angel has this last year,” Shaquille O’Neal previously told Women’s Health.
She had a fifth year of eligibility.
The COVID-19 pandemic upended Angel’s freshman year of college.
Because Angel—and plenty of other athletes—were impacted, the NCAA allows student-athletes who competed in the 2020-2021 season to have an extra year of eligibility if they want, per Sports Illustrated.
She’s projected to be the No. 7 draft pick.
ESPN projections put her as the seventh draft pick of the WNBA draft, making her the top choice for the Minnesota Lynx.
But, Angel's shooting higher. WH previously reported that Angel has a note on her mirror reading, "Be a top-five pick."
She makes bank through NIL endorsement deals.
Angel has nabbed an estimated $1.8 million in NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals during her time at Louisiana State University, according to On3. Those deals include brands like Coach, McDonald’s, Sparkling Ice, and Xfinity. In the 2024 session she added Airbnb, Godlman Sachs, Topps, and Beats by Dre to that list.
In March, Angel partnered with Goldman Sachs to promote the One Million Black Women campaign, which amplifies the voices of Black women to policymakers in Washington, D.C. For the deal, Angel filmed an ad with her mother (and former basketball player) Angel Webb Reese.
“I owe so much to my mom,” Angel says in the ad. “She instilled in me my confidence, work ethic and my commitment to my community. It’s clear that from her generation to today, Black women are still facing challenges. But I believe change is possible.”
WNBA salaries on average are much lower, with base salary being a little over $76,000, per the Chicago Tribune. But Angel's current NIL deals would carry through to her professional career (they'd just be called "sponsorships" instead), so you can rest assured she'd still be making bank.
Is Angel Reese going to the WNBA?
Yes! Angel announced that she's officially declaring for the WNBA draft on Wednesday, April 3, less than 48 hours after the Tigers' loss to Iowa.
During a photo shoot with Vogue, Angel explained why she's looking forward to starting over on a new team.
"I want to start at the bottom again," she said. "I want to be a rookie again and build myself back up; I want to be knocked down and learn and grow at the next level."
"I’ll be working with grown women,” she continued. "I’ll be working with women that have kids, women that have a family to feed. I’m going to have to work my butt off every single day and grind. And who wouldn’t want that? I don’t want anything in my life to be easy."
Of course, no matter what happens in the draft, Angel's going to be unapologetically herself.
“You don’t see a lot of confident women, especially confident Black women, because people overshadow us a lot,” Angel told WH. “I’m trying to change that.”
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