{"id":277014,"date":"2025-11-07T09:55:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/277014\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:55:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:55:25","slug":"whose-idea-was-it-to-suspend-angel-reese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/277014\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose idea was it to suspend Angel Reese?"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 After the Sky<\/a> suspended forward Angel Reese for the first half of their 80-66 loss Sunday to the Aces for comments \u2018\u2018detrimental to the team,\u201d they declared the matter resolved.<\/p>\n

For some reason, however, the Sun-Times can\u2019t help but chew on a few questions.<\/p>\n

First, whose idea was it to suspend Reese?<\/p>\n

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 \u2018\u2018top-down\u2019\u2019 organizational decision.<\/p>\n

Guard Ariel Atkins tipped her hand a little further, telling the Sun-Times on Friday that \u2018\u2018ownership handled it how they see fit.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Clearly, this decision was way above Marsh\u2019s pay grade, an interesting reveal about how seriously the organization was shaken by Reese\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

Second, what is the level of trust right now between Reese and the Sky?<\/p>\n

Before the game, Reese was asked how Marsh has supported her through what has, no doubt, been a challenging moment.<\/p>\n

The PR staffer once again redirected the question.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Does that sound like a trusting \u2014 or even healing \u2014 relationship to you?<\/p>\n

Finally, where does the locker room stand?<\/p>\n

Reese has apologized to her teammates, and her teammates have said they\u2019re moving forward.<\/p>\n

After all, they have no other choice. Reese sat next to Atkins on the bench for the whole game \u2014 she ended up reporting a back injury \u2014 and the two just stared straight ahead.<\/p>\n

Online chatter<\/p>\n

The Sky have been dominating women\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018People are going to respond at their level of awareness,\u2019\u2019 rookie Maddy Westbeld told the Sun-Times.<\/p>\n

She said she deleted her X account when she entered the league.<\/p>\n

Veteran Kia Nurse has her way of dealing with the online chaos, too, mostly by setting up guardrails.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018You can\u2019t comment to me, you can\u2019t send me [direct messages],\u2019\u2019 she told the Sun-Times. \u2018\u2018My block button is strong.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018It\u2019s easy to make comments on situations that you\u2019ve never been in and situations that you\u2019ll never be in and never understand,\u2019\u2019 Nurse said.<\/p>\n

Nor does she think anything can be done to set the record straight.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018There\u2019s no way to go back and say, \u2018This is what\u2019s happening,\u2019\u2009\u2019\u2019 she said. \u2018\u2018At the end of the day, they\u2019re never going to agree with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkins injured<\/p>\n

Atkins didn\u2019t play against the Aces and is getting treatment for a back injury. Marsh said she took a \u2018\u2018pretty hard fall\u2019\u2019 in the game Friday against the Fever and is continuing to receive treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 After the Sky suspended forward Angel Reese for the first half of their 80-66 loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-277014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}