After an “interesting” game in women’s hoops over the weekend, our man Shaq says he chatted with his friend, LSU star Angel Reese, to offer some words of support and praise. Why? If you saw the game, you saw things get a little “chippy” towards the end.
The Lady Tigers were playing South Carolina for the SEC title, and a much-improved placement in the Women’s Final Four Championship. Late in the game, South Carolina gave an intentional foul to LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson. That created a good-sized crazy scuffle that ended with multiple player ejections for both teams when several players jumped up and onto the court from their bench areas.
Reese took to social media later in the day Sunday to talk about the incident, and say she was not involved in the fight at all. Reese says she’s already been slightly injured before the foul in question, and she wasn’t about to get involved. She says she was mindful of her actions, especially as one of the star players on her team. She didn’t want to have to sit out future games… important ones, at that.
The BIG Podcast with SHAQ
Shaq told the sports website For The Win that he spoke to Reese not long after the game. The big man says he told the “Bayou Barbie” she did the right thing by not being involved.
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Shaq told For the Win, “I see she’s taking a lot of flack. ‘Oh, she should have been there.’ This is not fighting. The only thing you have to fight for is to fight for your team. The game was played closely. Things like that — you don’t want them to happen. When they do happen, you just move on.”
O’Neal says he told Reese she made the right decision: “I called her and I said, ‘You did the right thing. Trust me, you did the right thing, because if you would have went out there, they would have been looking for you. You and [Kamilla] Cardoso get into a shoving match. She’s already ejected. Can’t play in the next round. That would have happened to you. It would have been all your fault.’ So, she did the right thing. Kudos to her.”
There were a few tense, interesting moments during the broadcast of the game itself. As the teams were separated and the fouls and ejections were being sorted out, the ESPN broadcast team talked about who was being ejected, and the possibility that all of the players involved might not be eligible and on the court for the first round of the upcoming NCAA tournament.
That set off a wildfire of comments on social media. Multiple ejections of players from two of the best rosters in women’s basketball would make a huge impact on the upcoming tournament. Someone behind the scenes must have heard the comments and seen the reaction. The on-air team quickly apologized and clarified that only those directly involved in the incident would be suspended.
Good for Angel Reese for staying out of a possible ejection situation…and good for Shaq for helping keep his friend focused on the game and season at hand.