{"id":68884,"date":"2025-08-14T11:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/68884\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T11:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:32:14","slug":"angel-reese-backs-ariel-atkins-after-wnba-ejection-firestorm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/68884\/","title":{"rendered":"Angel Reese backs Ariel Atkins after WNBA ejection firestorm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was already a rough season for both the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun, but things got even more heated on Wednesday when tempers boiled over and three players were sent to the locker room early.<\/p>\n<p>The flashpoint<\/p>\n<p>The spark came during a battle in the paint, when Connecticut\u2019s Bria Hartley and Chicago\u2019s Rebecca Allen tangled for position. Hartley shoved Allen to the floor, Allen grabbed her jersey on the way down, and the two exchanged words.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/wnba\/news\/wnba-fight-night-three-players-tossed-wild-sky-sun-showdown\/d783f049b5759756bbd9ecbe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WNBA fight night: three players tossed in wild Sky-Sun showdown<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Before things could settle, Sky guard Ariel Atkins charged in to defend Allen, reigniting the confrontation. Officials stepped in and, after review, ejected Hartley, Allen, and Atkins from the game.<\/p>\n<p>Reese speaks out<\/p>\n<p>Watching from the sidelines while recovering from injury, Angel Reese wasted no time in making her feelings known. Minutes after the incident, she posted on X: \u201cARIEL A REAL ONE. BEEN.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time Atkins has stood up for a teammate, and Reese appreciated her willingness to jump into the fray. The Sky may be struggling in the standings, but moments like this are winning Atkins respect inside the locker room.<\/p>\n<p>Reese has not played during the month of August. She last played on July 29 in Washington. In that game, she scored 22 points and ripped down 13 rebounds against the Mystics.<\/p>\n<p>More WNBA News:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was already a rough season for both the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun, but things got even&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-68884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}