Women's Fastbreak On SI

Kahleah Copper Calls Timeout on Angel Reese's Cheeky Sky Unrivaled Recruiting Tease

Angel Reese had her (presumed) public Chicago Sky recruiting pitch shut down by Unrivaled teammate Kahleah Copper.

Grant Young

Kahleah Copper speaks to members of the media at Player 15 HQ in Phoenix on Sept. 26, 2024.
Kahleah Copper speaks to members of the media at Player 15 HQ in Phoenix on Sept. 26, 2024. / Diannie Chavez/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Perhaps the most compelling part of the Unrivaled Women's Basketball League is that some of the sport's best female players — who are used to competing against each other on separate WNBA squads — get to team up for about two months in Miami.

Perhaps even more compelling than that is that Unrivaled is occurring in the middle of the WNBA's free agency period, while these top players are getting a taste of what it would be like to play alongside each other in the WNBA.

While there are only several Unrivaled players who will become free agents when WNBA free agency officially begins on February 1, conversations could be occurring on all teams about potentially teaming up in the WNBA.

And in the case of Chicago Sky superstar Angel Reese and Phoenix Mercury standout Kahleah Copper — both of whom play for Unrivaled's Rose BC — those conversations (almost) became public on Saturday.

This started when the Mercury's social media team posted a photo of Reese and Copper on X with the caption, "front runners for unrivaled comedic duo already 😭".

Copper responded to this with, "🙊". While this might seem like a harmless emoji, many Sky fans took it as an indication of something more.

And Reese stoked this fan intrigue by writing, "grandma you can always come… nvm we got 10 weeks to chat🤭".

It must be noted that it can't be said for certain what Reese was alluding to by saying "you can always come". But most fans seem to think that if Reese had finished her sentence, she would have said something like "back to Chicago", given that Copper played for the Sky from 2017-2023 and won a WNBA championship there in 2021.

It's also worth noting that Copper is not a free agent. Although Copper doesn't need someone else to shut Reese's message down by quickly responding, "Go to timeout nowwwwww😭".

It sounds like Copper isn't having any of Reese's presumed Sky recruiting pitch.

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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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