Angel Reese Delivers Cold One-Word Insult to Courtney Williams During Dream Win Over Lynx
Angel Reese and Courtney Williams have a rivalry now. Whether they wanted one or not.
The two got tangled up in the second quarter of Atlanta’s 89-81 win over Minnesota on Sunday. Reese drove into a double-team. Williams got physical. The refs called a jump ball instead of a foul, which sent Reese into a full-body reaction that spilled directly into a verbal exchange.
Lip readers went to work. The internet decided Reese had called Williams “baldhead” or possibly “bald head” or maybe “punk a.” The consensus settled on “baldhead,” and Reese never denied it.
Williams did not either. They played through the rest of the quarter with a very obvious edge. Reese finished with 18 and 12. Williams finished with 15 and 6.
The two have history. Williams called out the Chicago Sky’s record earlier in the season when Reese was still on that roster. Reese did not forget. Now that Atlanta has Reese and Williams is in Minnesota, they are teams fighting for the same playoff seeding tier in the East and West standings.
The rivalry is fun for the sport. The WNBA has spent the last two years figuring out how to package personality-driven storylines without leaning too hard into manufactured drama. Reese and Williams are giving them the real thing.
Bald jokes are not exactly Reese’s most sophisticated material. She knows it. She said it anyway because in that moment it was the fastest way to get in Williams’ head. It worked. Williams did not respond with the same fire. She let it rattle her.
The Dream needed the win, and Reese was the reason they got it. DeWanna Bonner made her debut off the bench and hit a corner three off a Reese pass. Rhyne Howard added 21. Atlanta closed the fourth quarter with a 12-2 run that put the game out of reach.
Minnesota is still the class of the WNBA. Napheesa Collier is the MVP frontrunner. Their defense grinds. Their bench, however, got outscored on Sunday, and that is a problem the Lynx will have to solve in a playoff series against a team that can actually score with them.
Atlanta walks away with the win and the meme of the day. Reese does what Reese does. She gets the rebounds. She gets the calls. She gets the last word. Williams got the jump ball. Reese got the game.
The next meeting between these teams is going to be an event. Every fan will be watching to see what Reese says. Every camera will be locked on Williams’ reaction. The WNBA does not have to promote it. Reese and Williams already did the job.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
