Angel Reese is having quite the week. Days after being fined following her first pro game against her college rival, Caitlin Clark, the Chicago Sky player was ejected from Tuesday’s Sky versus New York Liberty game with just 2:31 left to play.
During the game, referee Charles Watson whistled for Reese’s fifth foul. In response, Reese said something to him, according to several reports, though it’s unclear what. Following the exchange, Watson gave her a technical — a type of foul given to players for unsportsmanlike conduct, like arguing with officials. Reese responded by walking away from him while waving her hand, leading Watson to give her a second technical foul, which automatically got her booted from the game. Lead official, Maj Forsberg, told a pool reporter after the game that Reese got the technicals for “disrespectfully addressing” Watson and “waving her hand in dismissal.” Each technical came with a $200 fine.
Per USA Today, players and fans looked confused during the interaction between Reese and Watson, and the audience booed loudly as Reese left the court. On X, Chicago Bulls player Lonzo Ball, who was sitting courtside, said the ref was “weak” and offered to pay Reese’s $400 fine. Reese thanked him on X but didn’t say anything else about the fouls. “I tried to get an explanation. I did not,” Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon said in the postgame news conference. “I don’t know to this moment what has happened.”
On Wednesday, the WNBA rescinded the second technical foul, per ESPN, though they did not state a reason. While it won’t give Reese the remaining two minutes of Tuesday’s game back, it lowers the fee she has to pay and leaves her record with just one technical.
Reese’s ejection came days after she was fined $1,000 for not talking to reporters after Saturday’s game against the Indiana Fever. On Thursday, the Sky will play the Washington Mystics. If the season continues the way it has been, it’s going to be an exciting and chaotic game.
This post has been updated.
