Angel Reese says she’s also contributed to WNBA’s growth in statement that appears to take dig at Caitlin Clark

Caitlin Clark has received a lot of public attention following her move to the WNBA from college this year, but Angel Reese is also asking for her flowers for contributing toward the growth of the league. 

Reese, 22, made those comments while talking to reporters after she and the Chicago Sky lost against Clark’s Indiana Fever on Monday, PEOPLE reported. 

“I think so many people are watching women’s basketball right now. It all started from the national championship game, and I’ve been dealing with this for two years now and understand that, yeah, negative things have probably been said about me. But honestly, I’ll take that because look where women’s basketball is,” Reese said.

“People are talking about women’s basketball that you’d never would think would be talking about women’s basketball. People are pulling up to games. We’ve got celebrities coming to games [and] sold-out arenas just because of one single game,” she continued. “And just looking at that, I’ll take that role. I’ll take the bad guy role, and I’ll continue to take that on and be that for my teammates, and I know I’ll go down in history.”

“I’ll look back in 20 years and be like: ‘Yeah, the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person, it’s because of me too, and I want you to realize that,” Reese added. “Like it’s just not cause of one person. A lot of us have done so much for this game.”

In what was a highly publicized event, the Chicago Sky drafted Reese with the seventh overall pick, and she and the league’s first draft pick, Clark, have since been under the spotlight. Reese’s recent comments also come after the WNBA fined her $1,000 for “failing to make herself available to the media for interviews” following a game on Saturday, The Associated Press reported.

“In addition, the Sky organization has been fined $5,000 for failing to ensure that all players comply with WNBA media policies,” the WNBA said in a statement. Reese on Monday told reporters that she was taking “accountability” over the incident.

“That was something on my behalf that I wasn’t able to do at the moment just because of the timeline of it but [I’m] making sure moving forward I’ll take time out for you guys,” she said.