The Chicago Sky managed to get one of the most impressive pairs of prospects in the 2024 WNBA Draft in Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, from the LSU Tigers and the South Carolina Gamecocks, respectively. Veteran forward Brianna "Breezy Bri" Turner also joined the team as a free agent this offseason.
The Sky celebrated the graduation of their 2024 rookie class and Breezy, who graduated from Arizona State, with a banner, certificates, and the whole team wearing party hats while exchanging gifts.
Turner played college basketball for Notre Dame, where she won the national championship in 2018. But she enrolled in Arizona State in 2022 to take up a Master of Arts in Social Justice & Human Rights.
Reese graduated from LSU with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations and minors in Communication Studies, Leadership Development and Psychology, per WAFB.
Cardoso majored in psychology in South Carolina, per Gamecocks Online.
Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso have busy social calendars
Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso are some of the student-athletes at the vanguard of the NIL wave that swept through college sports and have carried over their endorsement commitments to the WNBA as professionals.
On her birthday on May 6, the popular Reese left training early to attend the Met Gala with a preseason game against the New York Liberty in the offing.
She received some criticism from a section of WNBA fans and she immediately clapped back at them after registering 13 points 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
“A lot of people told me I shouldn’t have went to the Met Gala, that I wasn’t going to be focused playing against the runner-ups,” Reese said. “And I went to the Met Gala, slayed the Met Gala in New York, came back, slayed against New York. It’s what I do.”
Cardoso, who has been sidelined by a shoulder injury, also had off-court commitments when she attended the premiere of the ESPN docuseries "Full Court Press" in Indianapolis on May 6.
She was one of the three protagonists in the docuseries alongside fellow WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and UCLA Bruins star Kiki Rice.
Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso also appeared together in a commercial titled "To the season that was and the champs to be" alongside NBA legend Dwayne Wade promoting the NBA Finals.
Chicago Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon was defiant over concerns about her two rookies having social commitments away from the court. She addressed the issue in a news conference after the Sky's game against the Dallas Wings.
“That’s something they earned and that’s never something we’d ever take away,” Weatherspoon said.
With a supportive coach and an impressive background of being marketable student-athletes, Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese seem to have found the right team to pursue their careers.