Angel Reese Issues Plea After Photos of Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers Appear

GettyAngel Reese reacts to suffering a nose injury.

Angel Reese issued a social media cri de couer that many believe was a reaction to the unauthorized posting of altered photos of fellow basketball stars Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers.

“Protect young women in sports!!!” Reese wrote on X (formerly Twitter), on April 22, 2024.

Reese retweeted another X user and LSU fan who wrote, “We want all women to feel safe, loved, & respected. But y’all really gotta start listening when black women say ‘HEY THIS IS HAPPENING…’ Cuz that girl JUST sat her behind up there & told yall she was being sexualized.”

Although Reese’s post is ambiguous, many believe she defended Clark and Bueckers after doctored photos of them two surfaced on the internet on April 21. Reese herself claimed there were fake AI images of her online in March 2024 but offered no further detail.

Heavy viewed social media posts that showed the images had been shared on X and elsewhere online, including Reddit. Posts on a subreddit dedicated to Clark and to posting photos of WNBA players were removed for violating the social media site’s rules.

A message on a subreddit dedicated to Bueckers now reads, “r/paigebueckers is banned
This subreddit was banned due to a violation of Reddit’s rules against non-consensual intimate media.”

Heavy was not able to confirm the authenticity of the images. Posts on social media viewed by Heavy indicate the photos of the basketball stars began surfacing on X on April 21, with users claiming to have links to view the images. Many of those links appeared to be spam. Bueckers and Clark were trending on X on April 22.

WNBA and women’s college basketball fans rallied to support the players, posting positive messages and sharing old photos and videos of Clark and Bueckers in an effort to make the unauthorized photos harder to find.

Clark, who finished her Iowa career in the National Championship game in early April before being selected by the Indiana Fever in the WNBA draft, and Bueckers, who led UConn to a Final Four appearance and is set to return to the Huskies next season, have not commented.

HBCU Go sideline reporter Courtney Tate posted, “To everyone who flooded the Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers search with their highlights this morning, thank you. To the few weirdos in this world, y’all are sick.”

“People flooding Caitlin Clark & Paige Bueckers’ tags with fun pics and highlights is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time actually,” one X user wrote.

Reese Has Dealt With This Before

The Chicago Sky‘s No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft addressed her experience with what she said were AI photos on X in March, saying, “creating fake AI pictures of me is crazy and weird AF!”

In a separate post, the former LSU superstar wrote, “like i know im fine & seem to have an appeal to some but im literally 21 and yall doing this bs when i would neverrrrrr.”

The 2024 SEC Player of the Year has gained a massive following for being outspoken about her beliefs.

In fact, Reese has the word “UNAPOLOGETIC.” tattooed on her left forearm.

LSU basketball made an Instagram post on February 24 that honored Reese, in
preparation for her senior day game.

In the post, Reese said, “I wanna leave my legacy as being unapologetically me… I want people to understand that they can play and be who they are while playing the game that they love.”

After her last game at LSU, an emotional Reese said during the postgame press conference, “I’ve been through so much. I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times. Death threats, I’ve been sexualized, so many things and I’ve stood strong. Every single time. I just try to stand strong for my teammates because I don’t want them to see me down and not be there for them.”

Reese added, “I just want them to always know that I’m still human. All this has happened since I won the National Championship. And it sucks but I still wouldn’t change, I wouldn’t change anything. I’m unapologetically me. … Hopefully the little girls that look up to me and hopefully I give them some type of inspiration that hopefully it’s not this hard and all the things that come at you, but keep being who you are.”

Clark & Reese Celebrated the WNBA Draft Together

Although Clark and Reese went viral for trash talk during the 2023 National Championship game, there has always been mutual respect between the two icons.

Two days after that game ended, Clark told ESPN that, “I don’t think Angel should be criticized at all.”

The two former rivals spent much of 2024 WNBA draft week together, and even posed for a selfie together on the Empire State Building.

Angel Reese’s IG Story: “Whole lotta buckets”

After both women were selected in the April 15 draft, they were each seen celebrating at New York’s Tao nightclub, according to Page Six.

Clark and Paige Bueckers were apparently sitting at Cameron Brink’s table. While Bueckers didn’t declare for the draft, she was in attendance to support her UConn teammates.

Page Six noted that Brink’s and Reese’s tables were on “opposite sides of the club.” Still, there’s clearly no bad blood between any of the basketball stars.

Grant Young covers Major League Baseball, college basketball and the WNBA for Heavy.com. His sports coverage has also been featured at FanBuzz and NY Fights. More about Grant Young