Angel Reese, who was snubbed from the Team USA roster at the Paris Olympics, isn’t looking forward to Los Angeles 2028 just yet.
The WNBA rookie congratulated the gold medal-winning women’s basketball team after taking home their eighth consecutive Olympics victory on Saturday.
‘Let’s just congratulate these women & let them enjoy this moment,’ she wrote in a post on X Sunday.
‘Leave me out of this until my time comes,’ she added, alongside an angel emoji.
Reese penned the message in response to an ESPN article theorizing which players were likely to make the Olympics roster in four years time.
WNBA rookie Angel Reese isn’t looking forward to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics just yet
‘Let’s just congratulate these women & let them enjoy this moment,’ she wrote on X Sunday
The article read, in part, ‘Yes, the U.S. women’s 67-66 win over France is still soaking in. But … who will suit up for Team USA in the 2028 Olympics? Caitlin Clark? Angel Reese? Paige Bueckers? JuJu Watkins?’
It came just a few hours after Team USA’s nail-biting 67-66 victory over the Olympic hosts, with a roster that notably didn’t include Reese or her rival rookie, superstar Caitlin Clark.
The pair, who are both putting on very impressive performances less than 30 games into their careers, have been credited with giving the WNBA a huge boost in 2024.
The league has experienced an unprecedented ratings increase, along with a massive rise in merchandise sales and attendance at games.
Fanatics – the official retailer of the league – has seen a 500% surge in business during the first half of the season when compared to the first half of 2023.
USA has maintained its stranglehold on Olympics basketball after the women’s team’s win
No team has ever won eight straight Olympic events, marking history for the women’s team
The popularity boon is paying off in more ways than one, however, with the league inking a new media rights package worth about $2.2 billion over 11 years last month, The Athletic reported.
It nets out to approximately $200 million annually, roughly four times the WNBA’s current media deals with Disney, Ion, CBS and Amazon, which are valued at $50 million annually.
Several records have already been smashed throughout this WNBA season alone, with the league announcing last month that more than 400,000 fans attended games in May – the most in 26 years.
Additionally, the league’s viewership has increased greatly since Clark and Reese’s arrival.
Across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and CBS, WNBA games are averaging 1.32 million viewers – which is nearly triple last season’s standard of 462,200 viewers.
A superstar rookie class, led by Caitlin Clark and Reese, has given the WNBA a boost in 2024
The WNBA even inked a new media rights package worth about $2.2 billion over 11 years
