Women's Fastbreak On SI

Angel Reese Defends South Carolina Star Raven Johnson Amid 'Haters' Fan Discourse

Chicago Sky superstar Angel Reese showed love to former college rival Raven Johnson amid fan discourse.

Grant Young

Jan 25, 2024; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; LSU Lady Tigers forward Angel Reese (10) reacts after a score against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the first half at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images
Jan 25, 2024; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; LSU Lady Tigers forward Angel Reese (10) reacts after a score against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the first half at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images / Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

Chicago Sky superstar Angel Reese is no stranger to being critiqued by women's basketball fans.

During her time at LSU, a common sentiment on social media was that Reese's college skillset wouldn't translate into the pro game. While that was quickly proven wrong, Reese was still at the receiving end of much criticism about her shooting ability and supposedly stat-padding to keep her WNBA record double-double streak alive amid her first professional season.

Therefore, Reese knows how (supposed) fans can get on social media. And a defense she made of a former college rival showed a praiseworthy amount of empathy from the 22-year-old.

South Carolina guard Raven Johnson has been at the center of much social media discourse ever since an October 21 X post from FanDuel predicted she would be a first-round pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft.

Fans don't seem to think that Johnson — who has averaged 6 points per game in her South Carolina career, including 8.1 points per game for the defending champions last season — deserves to be a first-rounder.

"Raven Johnson from the University of South Carolina is not a first-round pick," X user @hrtwomensports wrote with a video of video of rapper Boosie Badazz saying, "And I'mma stand on that."

That is just one example of the sentiment that fans have been having about Johnson being a potential first- round pick.

Johnson appeared to address comments like these on Saturday by posting a photo on X that wrote, "If You Ain't Got No Haters, You Ain't Popping. I Ain't Tryna Hate."

Reese then responded to her post by writing, "you know i’m rocking wit you booskieee".

College rivalry aside, it's cool to see Reese showing love to Johnson after a few days of fans coming at her.

And Johnson can prove these "haters" wrong with a stellar 2024-25 season.

Published
Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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