LSU basketball star Angel Reese has made it clear how she feels about first lady Jill Biden breaking tradition and potentially extending a White House invitation to both teams that participated in the NCAA national championship game.
"A JOKE," Reese tweeted on Monday (April 3) with laughing emojis, per CNN.
Reese's tweet came after Biden spoke in Denver earlier that day, praising both the LSU Tigers and Iowa Hawkeyes for their performance in Sunday's (April 2) championship game. The first lady specifically applauded the Hawkeyes for their sportsmanship.
“So I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do," Biden said Monday. "So, we hope LSU will come but, you know, I’m going to tell Joe [Biden] I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”
Reese, who was crowned Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, was clearly unhappy with the suggestion. Traditionally, only champions are invited to visit the White House.
In a follow-up to her tweet, Reese said “WE NOT COMING. period" in the comment section of an Instagram post.
Prominent figures including ESPN's Stephen A. Smith chimed in on social media with their thoughts on Reese's reaction to Biden's remarks.
"I mean absolutely zero disrespect to the First Lady, but you are 1000% correct," Smith tweeted. "That is a bad suggestion. Runner-ups don’t get invited to the White House. Why are we trying to change it now?"
Reese has kept social media buzzing since the LSU women's basketball team won their first NCAA championship in program history on Sunday.
The basketball star helped lead her team to victory but was quickly vilified online as "classless" for hitting Hawkeyes player Caitlin Clark with the "you can't see me" hand motion and other "taunts." A number of social media users called out hypocrisy in the reactions to Reese and her taunts compared to when Clark was previously praised as "confident" and "cool" for doing the exact same thing to her opponents.
Amid the controversy, Vanessa Valdivia, press secretary to the first lady, sought to clarify Biden's suggestion of inviting both teams to the White House.
"Her comments in Colorado were intended to applaud the historic game and all women athletes. She looks forward to celebrating the LSU Tigers on their championship win at the White House," Valdivia tweeted on Tuesday (April 4).
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