Chicago Sky players harassed outside team hotel

Multiple Chicago Sky players shared their accounts of being harassed outside the team’s hotel Wednesday night, with star rookie Angel Reese saying a teammate had a camera put in her face as she got off the bus.

“This really is outta control and needs to stop,” Reese wrote on X.

finding out our teams hotel to pull with a camera as we get off the bus and put it in my teammates face & HARASS her is NASTY WORK. this really is outta control and needs to STOP.

— Angel Reese (@Reese10Angel) June 5, 2024

The Sky arrived in Washington D.C. ahead of their game against the Washington Mystics on Thursday night. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the team was harassed by a man targeting Chennedy Carter, who has received nationwide attention for her hard foul on Caitlin Clark in the Sky’s game against the Indiana Fever on Saturday. The WNBA later upgraded the foul to a Flagrant 1.

Sky forward Brianna Turner said she wasn’t at the scene of the incident, but “the absurd headlines recently has certainly created an unstable environment for our safety.”

I wasn’t present for the interaction from earlier, but what occurred isn’t acceptable. Didn’t realize that when we said “grow the game” that would be interpreted as harassing players at hotels. You are free to have your own opinion but consider if this happened to someone u know.

— Brianna Turner (@_Breezy_Briii) June 6, 2024

Turner and Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca credited team security for de-escalating the situation and separating the man from the players.

“Thank God for security,” Sky forward Isabelle Harrison posted. “My teammate being harassed at our hotel is insane. Couldn’t even step off the bus.”

WOW!!! Thank GOD for security. My teammate being harassed at our hotel is insane! Couldn’t even step off the bus!!!

— Isabelle Harrison (@OMG_itsizzyb) June 5, 2024

Carter’s hip check on Clark has triggered a week of attention, both within the league and far outside of it. On Monday, Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon called Carter’s foul “not appropriate.” On Wednesday, an Indiana Congressman Jim Banks penned a letter to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert about opponents’ treatment of Clark.

Banks also called out Reese for cheering on Carter in the moment of the foul. On Tuesday, Reese said she’s okay with being the “bad guy” in her years-long rivalry with Clark if it helps grow women’s basketball.

“I’ll take the bad guy role and I’ll continue to take that and be that for my teammates,” Reese said. “And if I want to be that, I know I’ll go down in history. I’ll look back in 20 years and be like, yeah, the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me, too. And I want y’all to realize that, like, it’s not just because of one person.

“A lot of us have done so much for this game, and Chennedy has been here before, obviously, but there are so many great players in this league that have deserved this for a really, really long time and luckily it’s coming now.”

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(Photo: Jeff Haynes / NBAE via Getty Images)