Several Chicago Sky players shared accounts of being harassed outside the team hotel on Wednesday night, with rising star Angel Reyes saying her teammate shoved a camera in her face as she got off the bus.
“This is truly out of control and needs to stop,” Reese wrote on X.
Finding out at our team hotel to pull out the camera as we were getting off the bus and putting it in my teammates face and harassing her is bad business. This is really out of control and needs to stop.
– Angel Reese (@Reese10Angel) June 5, 2024
The Sky arrived in Washington, D.C. ahead of their game against the Washington Mystics on Thursday night. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the team was being harassed by a man targeting Chennedy-Carter, who received national attention for her critical foul on Kaitlyn Clark in the Sky’s game against the Indiana Fever on Saturday. The WNBA later upgraded the foul to Foul 1.
Sky forward Brianna Turner said she was not at the scene, but “the ridiculous headlines of late have definitely created an unstable environment for our safety.”
I was not present for the interaction before, but what happened is unacceptable. I didn’t realize that when we said “growing the game” it would be interpreted as harassing players in hotels. You are free to have your own opinion but think about if this happened to someone you know.
-Brianna Turner (@_Breezy_Briii) June 6, 2024
Turner and Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca credited team security with deescalating the situation and separating the man from the players.
Sky striker Isabelle Harrison said: “Thank God for security.” “My colleague being harassed at our hotel is crazy. I couldn’t even get off the bus.”
amazing!!! Thank God for security. My colleague being harassed at our hotel is crazy! I couldn’t even get off the bus!!!
– Isabel Harrison (OMG_itsizzyb) June 5, 2024
Carter’s hip scan on Clark sparked a week of interest, both inside and outside the league. Sky coach Teresa Witherspoon on Monday described Carter’s mistake as “inappropriate.” On Wednesday, Indiana Congressman Jim Banks wrote a letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert about opponents’ treatment of Clarke.
Banks also called out Reese for encouraging Carter at the wrong moment. Reese said Tuesday she doesn’t accept being the “bad guy” in her years-long rivalry with Clark if it helps advance women’s basketball.
“I’m going to take on the bad guy role and continue to do that and be that for my teammates,” Reese said. “And if I want to be, I know I’ll make history. I’ll look back in 20 years and say, yeah, the reason we watch women’s basketball isn’t just because of one person. It’s because of me. And I want you all to realize that it’s not because of one person.” Just.
“A lot of us have done a lot for this game, obviously Chindi has been here before, but there are a lot of great players in this league who have deserved this for a very long time and thankfully he is coming now.”
Required reading
(Photo: Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)