Angel Reese played just 13 minutes during LSU women’s basketball’s blowout win over Kent State on Tuesday. The true reason for her benching has not been stated publicly. Head coach Kim Mulkey called it a “coach’s decision” and Reese did a very good job of taking the high road.
(UPDATE: Angel Reese missed her second-straight game on Monday night. HERE is what we know)
Not long after the Tigers won without Angel Reese on the floor for the entire second half, beef broke out amongst mothers of athletes on the team and former players. It may or may not correlate to what transpired on the court, and the online tension has since died down, but the drama is real.
Reese’s mother, Angel Webb Reese, posted the following message on Instagram:
Folks pls do not send me long text msgs with a bunch of grammatical errors it gives me a headage 🤦♀️ how do I know if you said what you said if I can’t understand what you’re saying 🤦♀️😂
— Angel Webb Reese / @angelzeta410, Instagram
The root of her post is not entirely clear. There was initially some speculation that it was directed toward Fla’jaue Johnson.
Either way, Johnson’s mother got involved. Kia Brooks responded to Reese’s mom with an Instagram story of her own. She alleged that Reese has a GPA no greater than 2.0.
You definitely know about grammar errors when your daughter got a 2.0 or less GPA. 🤦♀️ And in fact when writing your smart message you didn’t capitalize nor did you use any periods. 😂
Stop being petty, fake and hateful, and take responsibility for you and your daughters actions. Your just as responsible you raised her that way. Nobody give a damn who you think you are since you came up off another’s brand.
Just like God gave it to you he will take it right away.
Always stay humble and never forget who made you and where you came from!! 🙏👏💜💛
— Kia Brooks / @kiajbrooks, Instagram
Brooks later posted again with the following quote:
I rather be real and rejected.. Than fake and accepted.
Johnson’s mother added her own commentary on top of the quote.
Never will I be fake. Right is right and wrong will always be wrong !!
— Kia Brooks / @kiajbrooks, Instagram
Brooks later deleted the first post from her story as soon as thing started to escalate.
LSU alums got invioved.
It started with Alexis Morris, who played for the Tigers from 2021-2023. She won a national title in April and was drafted in the second round of the WNBA Draft.
switched up to gang up on me. now yall fall-in out. don’t ever choose clout over loyalty free game. I showed real love not for marketing politics nothing. but the realist always prevail 🤞🤷♀️
— Alexis Morris on X, formerly known as Twitter
An even more cryptic follow-up post came shortly thereafter.
can we just all get alone? (sic) heck no that’s over with.
— Alexis Morris on X
And then Jasmine Carson chimed in. She started in 30 of 36 games during LSU’s National Championship season.
y’all better hope I don’t say nothing.. 😂
— Jasmine Carson on X
Morris encouraged her to speak up.
ready set go mf
— Alexis Morris on X
Carson proceeded to claim that what she has to say would be “BREAKING NEWS.” Her mother then sent something of a warning shot.
The basketball 🌎 is not ready for this. Jazz got receipts to destroy that program…….
— Jasmine Carson’s mother on X
Morris continued to sound off in four separate posts. The second post was in response to another WNBA player who said she “wanna see LSU play LSU cuz what’s going onnn??” The fourth seemed to be a jab at Johnson’s mom.
— Alexis Morris on X
- out of respect and love for my coach, ima spare them people. that part
- get the gloves
- You can’t pay me to bash Kim ‼️‼️‼️
- yall ever notice yall don’t see my mama in nothing, she don’t do social media, she don’t get in kids drama, she not calling the coaches pulling power or status cards none of that ‼️
Reese’s mom eventually caught up on what was going on. She clarified that her Instagram story was not targeted at anyone involved with LSU. She was posting about a date.
Omg just catching up 🤦♀️ so a woman can’t make a jokey joke about her msg exchange from a male friend without y’all thinking I’m throwing shade at another person 🤷♀️ stop it y’all … folks there’s a certain code that I follow but my dates will get joked on on occasion 😂
— Angel Webb Reese on X
Although things died down for most of Thursday afternoon, Morris responded again on Friday morning.
Praying all parties can reconcile. Because at the end of the day,those girls have to see each other everyday, co-existing with tension takes alot of maturity,patience, and a lot of biting the bullet.I went through it all last year, after a parent did the same thing to me […]
It’s all about how things were handled. I was handled like a dog on the street who had never did anything for LSU, or Kim..all because a parent had called and claimed I was bullying. It’s just somethings I will never forgive some people for. For allowing certain things to be said
— Alexis Morris on X
Kim Mulkey shut it all down.
When asked about the ongoing drama on Thursday, Mulkey did not give it the time of day.
Well if you’re going to ask me social media stuff, I can cut you off. I know nothing about it. Anybody in here can tell you, I don’t see what’s on social media. I don’t know what people see, read, whatever. Buddy, I’ve been doing this for 40 years. If there’s negative stuff on social media, do you think it’s the first time I’ve ever had to deal with it? Coach. Just coach and get your team prepared
— Kim Mulkey
Neither Reese nor Johnson have addressed the situation. Many of the posts have been deleted.
LSU will face Southeastern Louisiana at 7:00 p.m. CT on Friday night. It will be interesting to see whether the drama reaches the court. It will also be interesting to see how much Reese plays.