WNBA's Angel Reese Says She's Experienced Cyberbullying, 'I've Built A Thicker Skin'

Since her profile skyrocketed during the 2023 NCAA tournament while playing at LSU, Angel Reese has developed the ability to help tune out the negative comments she frequently receives online.

Speaking to ESPN's Elle Duncan ahead of her appearance in the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game (starts at 1:30 mark), Reese said "I've built a thicker skin" when detailing her experience with cyberbullying.

"It was hard for me in the beginning. After I won the national championship, my whole life changed. That was the first time I had seen negativity like that on social media. I thought I had a huge following before, but it skyrocketed to millions. It was bigger than basketball when they were finding my address, my car. I had to change my whole lifestyle. It doesn’t bother me as much anymore just because I feel like I’ve built a thicker skin, but not everybody has a thick skin."

Reese's on-court rivalry with Caitlin Clark helped propel both women to new levels of popularity. Even though their first head-to-head college game was in February 2022 when Reese played for Maryland, it was the national title game between LSU and Iowa in April 2023 that garnered tremendous attention.

LSU won the game 102-85, and Reese was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, but all anyone seemed to focus on afterward was her doing the "you can't see me" gesture at Clark.

The situation got so out of hand that Clark pushed back against the criticism being aimed at Reese.

A 2025 study published by Rice University and the University of Illinois Chicago, which analyzed 700,000 posts on X before and after the game, found Clark was "largely celebrated" and Reese was "disproportionately criticized, often with racial undertones."

Both Reese and Clark have stated they don't hate each other. Their rivalry has certainly been good for women's basketball, with the season-opening matchup between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever becoming the most-watched WNBA regular-season game since 2000.

The cyberbullying goes beyond the Reese-Clark feud. There was online criticism last month accusing Reese of collecting "mebounds" off her own misses close to the basket to pad her stats.

Reese responded to the moniker by filing a trademark for "mebounds" and releasing a merchandise collection, with a portion of the proceeds being used to combat cyberbullying.

One thing Reese said to Duncan that has helped her avoid getting bogged down by the online criticism is getting closer to her fellow WNBA players, referring to them as her "sisters" and talking about opening up more with them at this year's All-Star festivities than she did during her rookie season in 2024.

The All-Star Game will tipoff at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday from Indianapolis. Reese is a reserve on Napheesa Collier's team going up against Clark's squad.