The WNBA and activism are inseparable. In 2020, Atlanta Dream players helped Raphael Warnock become Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator and edge out Kelly Loeffler, the team’s co-owner, in the election, after she openly criticized the WNBA’s Black Lives Matter promotion. That same season, players also pushed to honor Breonna Taylor and other Black women who lost their lives due to police violence. The WNBA even formed a Social Justice Council. More recently, Breanna Stewart and Natasha Cloud held up signs that read “abolish ICE” before Unrivaled games.
This trend of players using their platform to advocate for causes they feel strongly about and try to better their communities is also well and alive in the next generation of stars. When Breanna Stewart appeared on The Pivot Podcast, Angel Reese earned a special shoutout from the Unrivaled co-founder for how she uses her platform.
“Angel, you see her. She’s constantly using her platform,” Stewart said when talking about how she can help the next generation of stars keep the WNBA’s dedication to activism alive. “Even the MeBounds, the way that people were trying to bully her only for kind of getting these double-doubles and that type of thing. She used it to her benefit to then help people going through cyberbullying or that type of thing.”
She also noted that the young generation was already very aware of how impactful their platform can be because of social media and how they grew up with it.
Angel Reese’s popularity can be a double-edged sword
Reese is one of the most popular players in the WNBA and one of the most popular people in sports in general. That popularity has come with a lot of opportunities ranging from brand deals to cameos in movies and TV shows to walking the runway in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
At the same time, however, the spotlight on Reese has also led to a lot of hate and bullying that often moves well past just critiquing her performances on the court. Since she burst on the scene with LSU in college, Reese has had to endure vile racism and sexism on social media and beyond.
Reese has found a way to make some of that hate work to her advantage. She is a walking double-double. However, early in her career, Reese struggled to score efficiently around the basket. So, social media was flooded with allegations that she was just stat-padding and that the only reason she got so many rebounds was that she was rebounding her own misses. The term “MeBounds” was supposed to humiliate Reese. She turned it into a brand, and the profits from any MeBounds sales are going to a charity that fights cyberbullying.