What’s the difference between Happy Gilmore and Angel Reese? As fans of the classic 1996 movie will recall, Gilmore spent the most time in the penalty box and was the only guy ever to take off his skate and try to stab somebody. Reese also set a precedent. She is the first person ever to be ejected from an Unrivaled game, a feat she accomplished no more than 11 days ago.
Advertisement
Reese earned two technicals in the game after she fouled Tiffany Hayes—first for repeatedly waving her hand at Hayes, then for arguing the first technical with the referee. Napheesa Collier, who co-founded Unrivaled with Breanna Stewart, talked about Reese’s ejection on a recent episode of the Run It Back podcast, as well as her cryptic tweet afterward that simply said, “Free me.”
Angel Reese probably didn’t expect to be given Unrivaled’s first-ever ejection
Luckily for Angel, she has plenty of time to make more history in that basketball league and the WNBA! pic.twitter.com/N23nEvbAkq
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) February 11, 2025
“I thought she was talking about because she was situated behind our walk-in where it looked like jail because it was crossed, the nets look like crosses, so I thought she was talking about that it looked like a jail cell.”
Although this was a first for Unrivaled, it wasn’t Reese’s first ejection, as she was also thrown out of a WNBA game against the Liberty in her rookie year for a similar circumstance in which she waved her hand at and was disrespectful toward an official.
Reese’s rival dating back to their college years, Caitlin Clark, has made headlines of her own for not playing in Unrivaled, although she didn’t rule out joining the three-on-three league in the future.
Napheesa Collier is optimistic that Caitlin Clark will play in Unrivaled eventually
Collier also spoke to Run It Back about Clark, and she was sympathetic toward the Indiana Fever superstar for having to play such a “whirlwind” schedule from her senior year in college to her first season in the WNBA. At the same time, she expressed confidence that Clark would join Unrivaled in the future.
“All we can do is show her what we have, and I think what we have here is really special. Of course, we’re always going to have a spot for her, and hopefully we can make it work in the future.”
Unrivaled hasn’t even been in action for a month yet, but it seems to be doing pretty well, both in terms of ratings and fan feedback. The pace of play is fast, and fans have enjoyed getting to see more of the players’ personalities, as well as fun pairings between players who would normally be against each other in the WNBA. If this keeps up, there seems to be a good chance that Clark will join next year. Just as she’s done for college basketball and the WNBA, her participation could raise Unrivaled to even greater heights.
