WNBA icon Diana Taurasi under fire after bizarre ‘bye-bye’ remark to Angel Reese during March Madness broadcast
COLLEGE basketball fans were left baffled after WNBA legend Diana Taurasi trolled LSU star Angel Reese during the women's NCAA Final Four games.
The 41-year-old 10-time WNBA All-Star called out Reese's on-court behavior on Friday while live on ESPN, and fans slammed her opinion.
Retired WNBA legend Sue Bird joined Taurasi for the live ESPN broadcast stream "The Bird & Taurasi Show."
The show returned on Fridays for the Women's Final four games between South Carolina, NC State, Uconn, and Iowa.
During the stream, Bird mentioned a moment from Resse that occurred earlier in the tournament in the second round, when LSU knocked off Middle Tennessee.
Reese waved goodbye to Middle Tennessee's Anastasiia Boldyreva after she fouled out in their 83-59 loss to LSU.
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Taurasi didn't seem too fond of the gesture and took a shot at Resse for eventually getting knocked out of the tournament by Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the Elite Eight.
"Wave bye-bye to your own career," Taurasi said.
Bird quickly intervened to remind Taursi that Resse's career was far from over since she had just declared for the WNBA draft.
"Oh, right. My bad." Taurasi replied.
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Taurasi also told ESPN Scott Van Pelt after the games during a segment on SportsCenter that Clark and Reese should better prepare to struggle in the WNBA.
"Look, SVP. Reality is coming. There's levels to this thing. And that's just life, we all went through it. You see it on the NBA side, and you're going to see it on this side," Taurasi said.
"You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you're going to come with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time."
WNBA and college basketball fans flooded social media with reactions to the Taurai's jab.
"Taurasi is a legend, but this is corny," this fan expressed.
"Why's she hating on a college kid??," a second fan wondered.
"Damn why they hating on their potential cash cows. I'll never understand it," a third said.
"If the WNBA becomes like the NBA, where legends don't show love to the young guys, then it's going to be a HUGE killer for women's basketball," another worried.
"This + the Breanna Stewart comment proves one thing: The older generation of stars are JEALOUS of the young superstars." a fifth declared.
Reese has had a decorated college career at Maryland and LSU.
She was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, averaging 23 points and 15.4 rebounds and winning the championship.
The LSU star continued her stellar play in 2023-24 and was named SEC Player of the Year.
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She also received first-team All-SEC and All-Defensive Team selections.
Reese declared for the WNBA draft last week and is expected to be a top-10 pick.
