NCAA Champ Angel Reese Strips Down For Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue, Twitter Hypes Her Up

NCAA Champ Angel Reese Strips Down For Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue, Twitter Hypes Her Up

Angel Reese For Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

Source: Yu Tsai / Yu Tsai For Sports Illustrated

Angel Reese’s star continues to grow.

The LSU forward has been living on a high since her squad bested Iowa in the NCAA Women’s championship 102-85, — including DMs from Drake and Future— and her latest opportunity comes with showing some skin.

Once a year, Sports Illustrated gathers some of the most influential women around to pose in the Swimsuit Issue, and this year it included the Bayou Barbie herself, Angel Reese.

In the shoot, Reese rocks a purple bikini with a gold-detailed necklace, a possible nod to her LSU team, and even does her infamous ring-finger pointing gesture that she used to trash-talk Caitlin Clarke in the big game.

“The biggest takeaway I want people to know is you can be girly off the court and still have swag and just be who you are,” the 21-year-old said. “I mean, I embrace my body, and who I am, and on the court I can still ball. I am 6’3″; I work out a lot, so why not show it? I got a nice little body. When I go to the beach or go to the pool, and everybody’s looking, it’s like, ‘damn, you sexy girl.’”

Source: Yu Tsai / Yu Tsai For Sports Illustrated

But despite the media making a big deal out of the competitive nature between the two college athletes, Reese assures everyone that the women can get just as spicy as the men with on-court shenanigans.

“Caitlin and I are cool,” Reese explains. “It’s just being able to force people to accept that women can talk trash. The women’s side gets penalized for it, or we’re considered as not being ladylike and that we’re not playing by the rules. We work just as hard as the men. Women can be who we are. Women can be competitive.”

In the accompanying interview, Reese talked about the impact others say she’s had on women’s basketball.

“Having so many people come back to me and say, ‘You guys have changed the game. You guys have been a part of history,’ I embraced that,” Reese says. “Just being able to be a part of this has just been amazing for me this year, and it’s been a blessing.”

Her team’s win proved just competitive women’s sports are and gave a huge nod to her head coach Kim Mulkey who was still getting used to competing in the SEC.

“We’ve done so much within a year,” she added. “We weren’t even supposed to be in the Final Four. We had nine new players, and it was coach [Kim Mulkey] ’s second year in the SEC, so we didn’t know what to expect. We just went out there and had fun all the time and put in a lot of work all season.”

Other women featured in this year’s Swimsuit Issue include LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne and chef Padma Lakshmi.