LSU’s women’s basketball team officially accepted the invitation to the White House!
The team confirmed Monday the national champions have accepted an invitation will be visiting Washington D.C. on May 26 after weeks of speculation on whether the team would visit President Joe Biden. As we previously reported, after beating the Iowa Hawkeyes 102-85, to win their first-ever national title, the LSU Lady Tigers were given an invitation to the White House, by First Lady Jill Biden.
However, the invitation was also extended to the losing team and runner-ups, Iowa State. The decision to invite both teams to the White House caused tons of controversy and backlash for the First Lady. Reese and a few of her teammates responded to the headlines saying, “A JOKE,“ Reese said.
Alexis Morris went further and requested to instead meet with former First Lady Michelle Obama. She said, “Michelle OBAMA can we (LSU NATIONAL CHAMPS) come celebrate our win at your house?”
Another LSU champion Flau’jae Johnson tweeted out, “If we lost would we be invited? That’s all I’m asking…”
Reese did eventually address her comments in a recent interview with Paper Route saying,
Reese said, “It was straight from the heart. That was what it was in the moment. As soon as that happened, we hit the group chat, like, ‘What are we doing? Are y’all trying to go? ‘Cause if we’re not going, we’re not going.’ And my coach was telling us to just be patient. She’s got this. And that’s why [The First Lady] came out with that statement this morning. We made a lot of phone calls. And that’s why she wants to come out and apologize.”
She continued, “But, at the same time, I don’t accept it. I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t accept the apology, because you said what you said. And I said what I said. You can’t go back on certain things that you say. You felt like they should’ve came because of the sportsmanship, right? They can have that spotlight. We’ll go to The Obamas. We’ll see Michelle. We’ll see Barack.”
Angel Reese has been making a lot of unwanted attention following the uproar over her supposed “lack of sportsmanship” after the NCAA women’s basketball championship game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and LSU Tigers. The 20-year-old went viral after taunting fellow athlete Caitlin Clark before pointing at her ring finger, which some people deemed disrespectful as the term “classless” began trending on Twitter soon after.
Reese has remained pretty unbothered by the backlash she’s received from those who think her actions were uncalled for. And in a previous interview on “NBA Today,” the Maryland native continued to defend herself as she addressed the criticism by stating that she didn’t care about what others thought about her taunt. When asked on how she has been dealing with the negative reaction on social media, she told host Malika Andrew, “I’ve been dealing with it since high school, so it’s obviously not new for me.”
“I want to take on that role of being the Black woman that’s going to stand up for the girls that may not have a voice,” she added. “I don’t care what anybody has to say about me. I love who I am. I’m authentically me.” Reese shared that she wants to take on the role of being a Black woman who stands up for not just herself but the girls who may not have a platform to defend themselves.