Sky's Reese: Didn't mean to put down teammates

Two-time WNBA All-Star Angel Reese said Wednesday night she apologized to her Chicago Sky teammates for remarks she made to the Chicago Tribune that were published earlier in the day. In the newspaper article, she had expressed concerns amid another losing season, saying she "might have to move in a different direction and do what's best for me" if the team didn't improve its talent level for the future.

After the Sky's 88-64 home victory over the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday, Reese was asked whether she was indeed frustrated with the organization. The Sky, who moved to 10-30 on the season, have been eliminated from the playoffs for the second year in a row. They are 3-15 since the All-Star break in July.

"I probably am frustrated [with] myself right now," Reese said in the postgame news conference. "I think the language is taken out of context. I really didn't intentionally mean to put down my teammates, because they've been through this with me throughout the whole year. They've busted their ass, just like I've busted my ass. They've showed up for me through thick and thin, and in the locker room when nobody could see anything.

"So, I want to apologize to my teammates, which I already have about the article and how it was misconstrued about what was said. And I just have to be better with my language. Because I know it's not the message, it's the messenger. And understanding what I say can be taken any kind of way. So, I just have to really be better and grow from this."

Reese expressed concern in the Tribune article about how this season has gone, how Tyler Marsh has coached and what the Sky intend to do to avoid a similar outcome in 2026.

"I'm not settling for the same s--- we did this year," Reese told the Tribune. "We have to get good players. We have to get great players. That's a non-negotiable for me. I'm willing and wanting to play with the best. And however I can help to get the best here, that's what I'm going to do this offseason.

"So it's going to be very, very important this offseason to make sure we attract the best of the best because we can't settle for what we have this year."

Marsh was asked in the postgame news conference about his reaction to Reese's remarks in the Tribune. He said he was not present for her apology to the team but that he did talk to Reese before the game.

"That will stay between me and Angel," Marsh said. "But I think that everyone had their opportunities to speak. And we'll leave it at that."

He did address the question of whether he feels he needs to coach players "harder," as Reese suggested in the article.

"I think that everyone is entitled to feel how they feel," Marsh said. "For me, the most important thing is staying authentic and genuine to who I am and have that translate in whatever way it translates.

"But I think the overarching theme is that none of us are happy with where we're at in terms of what our record has been. That's the core of where frustration is organizationally. We've just got to continue to finish this season strong."

Reese, who is averaging a team-high 14.7 points and a WNBA-best 12.6 rebounds this season, had 18 points and 13 rebounds in Wednesday's victory. She also picked up her eighth technical foul of the season late in the second quarter, which would mean an automatic suspension for Friday's game at the Indiana Fever unless the league rescinds the technical foul.

Marsh said the Sky are contesting the technical foul and will ask the league to review it.

"They told me it was an after-the-whistle dead ball foul," Marsh said of the referees' explanation for Reese's technical foul. "That they had the choice to go with a technical or a flagrant. I asked them, why not the flagrant? There was no real response given. We would obviously have liked for that to be a flagrant, as opposed to a technical."

Reese, 23, is finishing the second season of a standard three-year WNBA rookie contract that has a team option for a fourth year. The No. 7 pick in the 2024 draft, Reese was runner-up to Indiana's Caitlin Clark in the Rookie of the Year race last season, when the Sky finished 13-27 and fired coach Teresa Weatherspoon after only one season.

Reese expressed disappointment on social media at the time regarding Weatherspoon's firing. Marsh, a Las Vegas Aces assistant, was hired to replace Weatherspoon, but this season has gone worse for Chicago in terms of wins and losses.

In the Tribune article, Reese questioned the talent on the Sky's current roster and made it clear she expected the team's front office to be active in free agency.

"I am very vocal about what we need and what I want," she told the Tribune. "I'd like to be here for my career, but if things don't pan out, obviously I might have to move in a different direction and do what's best for me. But while I am here, I'm going to try to stay open-minded about what I have here and maximize that as much as I can."

Reese also said she was particularly concerned about the Sky's point guard situation. Longtime Sky point guard Courtney Vandersloot returned to Chicago this year after winning a WNBA title with the New York Liberty last year. But Vandersloot suffered a season-ending ACL injury June 7 in Chicago's seventh game. Vandersloot will turn 37 before next season.

Reese told the Tribune she doesn't see Vandersloot or anyone else currently on the Sky's roster as the point guard Chicago can build around long term.

"We can't rely on Courtney to come back at the age that she's at," Reese said. "I know she'll be a great asset for us, but we can't rely on that. We need someone probably a little younger with some experience, somebody who's been playing the game and is willing to compete for a championship and has done it before."

As for whether Chicago, which won the 2021 WNBA title, can return to being a championship-caliber team that can attract sought-after free agents, Reese said that remains to be seen and that the Sky must convince players the organization is going in the right direction.

"It would be a leap of faith for a great, great player to come here and show that this is something they want to be a part of and [that] we can bring that championship mentality," Reese said.

Marsh said his focus is on the Sky playing as well as possible for their remaining four games, "So we can continue to lay the foundation moving forward in a way where this season is [behind] us ... so we continue to take that next step."