Reese wins ESPY award for Best Breakthrough Athlete

Angel Reese, star of the 2023 LSU women’s basketball national championship team, won the ESPY on Wednesday for the Best Breakthrough Athlete.

She won the award over Caitlin Clark, Brock Purdy and Julio Rodriguez.

“First, I just want to say thank God,” Reese said in her acceptance speech at the televised ceremony from Los Angeles. “I can’t stop thanking God every day for this amazing blessing.

“I want to thank my family. My mom put me and my brother through college and I’m going to graduate this year.

“I just want to thank LSU, my teammates, my coaches, Kim Mulkey, everybody that helped me. I bless you. I transferred from the University of Maryland and came to LSU and I just joined a family.

So, I just want to say thank you and another natty is coming, period.”

Members of the LSU team were invited guests as well as Reese. LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne made a brief appearance with the team on-camera.

Reese set an NCAA single-season record with 34 double-doubles. She was selected a unanimous first-team All-American after averaging 23 points and 15.4 rebounds per game. She set the SEC single season for rebounds (555) and her 830 points were the third most in LSU history.

Off the court, Reese’s “brand” has exploded. Her Instagram following has increased from just more than 1,000 at the start of the 2022-23 season to now over 2 million.

She appeared in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and is ranked fifth by on3.com in NIL evaluation among college athletes at $1.6 million.