It’s been a minute since Shaq came out to publicly name Louisiana State University women’s basketball star Angel Reese as the greatest LSU athlete ever. The lady Tigers team triumphed over the Iowa Hawkeyes last month in one of the most-watched women’s sporting events in TV history.
In beating Iowa in the National Championship, Reese quickly gained her share of nationwide recognition and attention. Some of it was a little negative, after she used a gesture towards an Iowa player, showing she was about to get her championship ring. Still, any negativity from that blew over quickly, and no damage was done.
As for O’Neal, his compliment were absolutely top-shelf. Last month, just after LSU’s Championship win, Shaq said in his podcast, “She’s probably the greatest athlete ever to come out of LSU sports. You heard it here first. Male and female. Ever.”
Not surprisingly, Reese was flattered by the compliment, but also wasn’t sure just how accurate it was. Speaking on the podcast “The Breakfast Club,” Reese says she talked to the big man not long after the win.
Reese: “I called him after that. I was like, ‘You know how much pressure you just put on me? You know how much?’ He was like ‘I don’t give a f**k.’ I was like, ‘Alright, Unc.’” Yes, Reese calls Shaq “unc” … as in “uncle.” Pretty cool.
Still, Reese says there’s more to be done before she’s ready to fully accept the GOAT title: “I feel like I haven’t done nothing yet, so I told him, ‘Don’t even say that yet,’” she said. “I won a championship, but I just don’t feel like I’ve done enough. I don’t think I’ve done enough.”
On the same interview, Reese said she is just now coming to recognize “how much weight it holds” to win a championship.
No doubt that Reeses’s stats this year have been all-galaxy. She was LSU‘s leading scorer and rebounder throughout the 2022-23 season. For comparisons to other LSU greats – Shaquille O’Neal for example – Shaq was a two-time All-American, two-time SEC Player of the Year, and was awarded with the Adolph Rupp Player of the Year honor during his time at LSU from 1989 to 1992.
Still, Shaq says Reese the high honor of being LSU’s GOAT because she helped the school win a national championship, which he was never able to do during his time there.
What’s next for Reese? On the Breakfast Club podcast, she acknowledged Shaq’s comments will make more sense if she continues to lead the team to success. “If I go into year two and I dominate, we dominate, yeah, OK.”
No doubt there’s plenty of upside for Reese and teammates. “I feel like another championship and maybe Player of the Year would hold more weight.”
