LAS VEGAS — After the Sky suspended forward Angel Reese for the first half of their 80-66 loss Sunday to the Aces for comments ‘‘detrimental to the team,” they declared the matter resolved.
For some reason, however, the Sun-Times can’t help but chew on a few questions.
First, whose idea was it to suspend Reese?
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 Tyler Marsh called it a ‘‘top-down’’ organizational decision.
Guard Ariel Atkins tipped her hand a little further, telling the Sun-Times on Friday that ‘‘ownership handled it how they see fit.’’
Clearly, this decision was way above Marsh’s pay grade, an interesting reveal about how seriously the organization was shaken by Reese’s comments.
Second, what is the level of trust right now between Reese and the Sky?
Before the game, Reese was asked how Marsh has supported her through what has, no doubt, been a challenging moment.
The PR staffer once again redirected the question.
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.
Does that sound like a trusting — or even healing — relationship to you?
Finally, where does the locker room stand?
Reese has apologized to her teammates, and her teammates have said they’re moving forward.
After all, they have no other choice. Reese sat next to Atkins on the bench for the whole game — she ended up reporting a back injury — and the two just stared straight ahead.
Online chatter
The Sky have been dominating women’s 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?
‘‘People are going to respond at their level of awareness,’’ rookie Maddy Westbeld told the Sun-Times.
She said she deleted her X account when she entered the league.
Veteran Kia Nurse has her way of dealing with the online chaos, too, mostly by setting up guardrails.
‘‘You can’t comment to me, you can’t send me [direct messages],’’ she told the Sun-Times. ‘‘My block button is strong.’’
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.
‘‘It’s easy to make comments on situations that you’ve never been in and situations that you’ll never be in and never understand,’’ Nurse said.
Nor does she think anything can be done to set the record straight.
‘‘There’s no way to go back and say, ‘This is what’s happening,’ ’’ she said. ‘‘At the end of the day, they’re never going to agree with you.”
Atkins injured
Atkins didn’t play against the Aces and is getting treatment for a back injury. Marsh said she took a ‘‘pretty hard fall’’ in the game Friday against the Fever and is continuing to receive treatment.