{"id":472134,"date":"2025-12-26T05:02:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T05:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/472134\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T05:02:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T05:02:45","slug":"whose-idea-was-it-to-suspend-angel-reese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/472134\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose idea was it to suspend Angel Reese?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LAS VEGAS \u2014 After the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/chicago-sky\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Sky<\/a> suspended forward <b>Angel Reese<\/b> for the first half of their 80-66 loss Sunday to the Aces for comments \u2018\u2018detrimental to the team,\u201d they declared the matter resolved.<\/p>\n<p>For some reason, however, the Sun-Times can\u2019t help but chew on a few questions.<\/p>\n<p>First, whose idea was it to suspend Reese?<\/p>\n<p>She was asked before the game who notified her of the suspension, then pointed at a PR staffer, who redirected the question. Earlier this week, coach <b>Tyler Marsh<\/b> called it a \u2018\u2018top-down\u2019\u2019 organizational decision.<\/p>\n<p>Guard <b>Ariel Atkins <\/b>tipped her hand a little further, telling the Sun-Times on Friday that \u2018\u2018ownership handled it how they see fit.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, this decision was way above Marsh\u2019s pay grade, an interesting reveal about how seriously the organization was shaken by Reese\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n<p>Second, what is the level of trust right now between Reese and the Sky?<\/p>\n<p>Before the game, Reese was asked how Marsh has supported her through what has, no doubt, been a challenging moment.<\/p>\n<p>The PR staffer once again redirected the question.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves us with the following impression: Either Reese has no interest in talking about the situation, or the Sky have asked her not to.<\/p>\n<p>Does that sound like a trusting \u2014 or even healing \u2014 relationship to you?<\/p>\n<p>Finally, where does the locker room stand?<\/p>\n<p>Reese has apologized to her teammates, and her teammates have said they\u2019re moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>After all, they have no other choice. Reese sat next to Atkins on the bench for the whole game \u2014 she ended up reporting a back injury \u2014 and the two just stared straight ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Online chatter<\/p>\n<p>The Sky have been dominating women\u2019s basketball headlines, and with that comes a flood of chatter in the comments sections online. That commentary often is a reflection of toxicity in the broader culture. What do the Sky players make of it all?<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2018People are going to respond at their level of awareness,\u2019\u2019 rookie <b>Maddy Westbeld <\/b>told the Sun-Times.<\/p>\n<p>She said she deleted her X account when she entered the league.<\/p>\n<p>Veteran <b>Kia Nurse<\/b> has her way of dealing with the online chaos, too, mostly by setting up guardrails.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2018You can\u2019t comment to me, you can\u2019t send me [direct messages],\u2019\u2019 she told the Sun-Times. \u2018\u2018My block button is strong.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Nurse and Westbeld added that the online noise around the team has been an issue all season and that, for them, this is just more of the same.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2018It\u2019s easy to make comments on situations that you\u2019ve never been in and situations that you\u2019ll never be in and never understand,\u2019\u2019 Nurse said.<\/p>\n<p>Nor does she think anything can be done to set the record straight.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2018There\u2019s no way to go back and say, \u2018This is what\u2019s happening,\u2019\u2009\u2019\u2019 she said. \u2018\u2018At the end of the day, they\u2019re never going to agree with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Atkins injured<\/p>\n<p>Atkins didn\u2019t play against the Aces and is getting treatment for a back injury. Marsh said she took a \u2018\u2018pretty hard fall\u2019\u2019 in the game Friday against the Fever and is continuing to receive treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 After the Sky suspended forward Angel Reese for the first half of their 80-66 loss&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":472135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-472134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115784118646133136","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}