The Chicago Sky rookie said her new coach makes her feel very protected.

ngel Reese seems to have found her soulmate. The path of the former LSU Tigers forward has been marked by all kinds of obstacles. However, her arrival at the Chicago Sky of the WNBA has provided her with an oasis of rest, largely thanks to coach Teresa Weatherspoon.

During Sky’s Media Day on May 8, Reese showered her new coach with praise, saying she made her feel accepted from their first conversation. “My first conversation with her, during the draft process, I knew I wanted to come to Chicago. Immediately. Like, I felt understood, I felt loved,” said the player.

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He recalled that his first talk with Weatherspoon was over the phone. However, from that moment, “It felt like she was a mom. I knew I will always be good with her. She will always be there for me through everything.”

Weatherspoon is Reese’s first African American coach

One of the reasons why Chi Barbie feels so confident with Weatherspoon is that they share not only skin color but a whole cultural background. Reese assured that it is positive for her, “Just being able to have someone that understands me as a Black woman, that looks like me. Who knows what I’ve been through and understands me from that perspective.”

Reese has had excellent coaches since she began to excel in basketball. Jerome Shelton, an African-American man, was her high school coach, and during her college years, she encountered two white women in charge, Brenda Frase at Maryland and Kim Mulkey at LSU.

Her relationship with Mulkey was especially tight, and together, they won the NCAA title in the 2022-2023 season. However, her background is very different from that of Reese, who finally found a kindred spirit in Weatherspoon.

Mulkey and Weatherspoon are more similar than it seems

Despite everything, Reese highlighted that there are more similarities than differences between both coaches. “I love coach [Weather]spoon, she’s kind of like coach Mulkey. You have to have thick skin. You also have to be willing to be coached by her.”

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One of Weatherspoon’s great virtues is that she knows when to be strict and when to let her players fly. One example was the recent Met Gala when she let Reese and fellow rookie Kamilla Cardoso leave practice early so they could attend the ceremony.

In this regard, the coach highlighted, “There were things that were in place for them that we thought were very important for them to be part of. That’s something they earned, and that’s never something we’d ever take away.”