“Of course, I like to do everything big,” LSU basketball star Angel Reese tells me. It’s mid-March, a week before the start of the NCAA tournament, and the 21-year-old has just shared her plans to enter the WNBA draft with Vogue. She could have dialed up a sports outlet or simply mentioned her decision in a press conference, but “I didn’t want anything to be basic,” she says, speaking via Zoom from her off-campus apartment in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Reese says she was inspired by Serena Williams to break the news with a fashion shoot. (The tennis legend, of course, announced her retirement in the September issue of Vogue in 2022.) “I’ve done everything I wanted to in college,” Reese says: “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.”
Reese’s final game with LSU on Monday night, which saw the Tigers fall to Iowa in the Elite Eight round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, capped off an extraordinary college run. To summarize: After two seasons at the University of Maryland—with Reese sidelined for months during the first year with a foot injury—she transferred to LSU to play under legendary coach Kim Mulkey, and a whirlwind junior year ensued. Adoring fans nicknamed Reese the Bayou Barbie—a wink to her signature long lashes, cascading hairstyles, bold manicures, and unapologetic love of fashion. The 6’3” forward quickly became one of the highest-earning student athletes of the NIL era, inking deals with Amazon, Beats by Dre, Goldman Sachs, and more—and her dominance on the court led LSU to the 2023 national championship, where they won the first NCAA basketball title in school history, with Reese named the tournament’s most outstanding player. A trash-talking gesture in the championship game, meanwhile—watched by a record-breaking 9.9 million viewers—propelled her to viral fame.
“You don’t really realize it in the moment,” Reese says about all the attention on her during the matchup, “but obviously the things you say and do can change everything. I literally woke up the next day and I was a celebrity.” In short order, Reese attended the ESPY Awards, taking home the trophy for breakthrough athlete; she graced the pages of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue; she gifted herself a Benz for her 21st birthday and jetted off to Jamaica for vacation; she made a cameo in Cardi B and Latto’s “Put It on Da Floor Again” video; I profiled her for Teen Vogue.
