Angel Reese defends South Carolina star Raven Johnson amid ‘haters’ fan discourse – Sports Illustrated

Chicago Sky superstar Angel Reese is no stranger to criticism from women’s basketball fans.

During her time at LSU, the consensus on social media was that Reese’s skill set in college would not translate to the professional game. While this was quickly proven wrong, Reese still came under a lot of criticism regarding her shooting ability and alleged stat stacking to preserve her WNBA record double-double streak amid her first professional season.

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

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

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

“University of South Carolina’s Raven Johnson is not a first round pick,” wrote X user @hrtwomensports with a video of rapper Boosie Badaz saying, “And I’m going to argue with that.”

That’s just one example of the sentiment fans have about Johnson as a potential first-round pick.

Johnson appeared to respond to comments like these on Saturday, posting a photo of X that read: “If you don’t have haters, you don’t care. I’m not trying to hate.’

Reese then replied to her post, writing: “you know I rock with you booskieee.”

College rivalries aside, it’s great to see Reese show some love to Johnson after a few days of fans attacking her.

And Johnson could prove those haters wrong with a stellar 2024-25 season.