Honesty has always been Angel Reese’s currency, but her latest admission reveals a time when she struggled to accept the brutal truth from legendary coach Kim Mulkey. Angel Reese’s brand is built on being unapologetic, but on her own podcast, she revealed that the tough-love coaching style of Kim Mulkey was something she once privately hated.

In the latest episode of her podcast, Reese invited basketball coach Teresa Weatherspoon, and they delved into several topics. A key subject was LSU Tigers head coach, Kim Mulkey. Both Reese and Weatherspoon had the chance to play under the legendary coach, and they agree she was the one who pushed them the hardest.

“She played one time with us. And she said, ‘I’m going to show you all why I’m Kim Mulkey. I’m going show you.’ We were like, ‘Yeah, this is the time we going to beat the sh–….’, we were coming for her, but she showed us why she was Kim Mulkey. Oh, she was she’s tough. She’s greedy. She’s the same way. All the energy that she coaches with, she played the same way. She’s been doing that the entire time,” the Vinyl BC coach said.

However, for Angel Reese, the coach’s relentless standards weren’t always easy for her to embrace at the time.

“She used to get on me bad, and I used to hate it in the moment. I used to like why is she always on me like that?” she admitted. But it didn’t take her long to realize that coach Mulkey was making her tough for what lay ahead.

“But then, when I got to the league, I’ll be like, ‘oh okay, like this is a standard.’ It was no walking in practice. It was no, not being ready to go. When you came and practice I was ready to go… But she’s out of heart, out of good love,” the Chicago Sky star further added.

Under her guidance, Reese became a national champion and one of the most recognizable faces in women’s basketball. In two seasons at LSU, Reese helped lead the Tigers to the 2023 NCAA title, while also posting historic numbers, including 34 double-doubles in a single season.

But still, this isn’t the first time she has expressed how she hated playing for Mulkey. Looking back, she feels grateful for that experience.

Back in 2025, Reese revealed, “She prepared me for the WNBA. I think mentally, physically, for sure — practices were very long, and it was easy for me to do training camp. There’s not really anything anybody can say to me as a coaching staff that can break me, or tell me anything that I don’t know about myself, or say things that get me going because I went through Kim Mulkey. She’s gonna tell it like it is, she’s gonna keep it real with you, and I appreciate that. At the moment, I hated it. I’m not gonna lie, I hated it, and I dreaded it, and I didn’t like it. But when I left, I’m like, I was really thankful for that. It didn’t make sense in the moment, but now it all makes sense.”

Now, as Angel Reese continues to carve out her place in the WNBA, she also reflects on another pivotal coach in her life, Weatherspoon herself, who used to train the Chicago Sky.

Rising Star, Tough Lessons: Angel Reese on Trust and Transition

The Bayou Barbie got drafted in the WNBA as the seventh overall pick by the Chicago Sky in 2024. And if her college days were any indication, she went on to immediately become a force on the court, earning All-Star honors and dominating the glass.

In her rookie season, Reese averaged 13.6 points and 13.1 rebounds per game, which set the WNBA record for highest rebounding average in a single season.

But while she was winning on an individual level, her team didn’t see the same level of success. The Sky franchise finished 13-27, landing near the bottom of the conference, which ultimately led to the firing of head coach Teresa Weatherspoon.

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So during their conversation, they also discussed her departure from Chicago and reflected on the shared journey that helped shape Reese’s professional career.

Weatherspoon admitted that learning about her firing was “a tremendous shock,” especially given that they didn’t even tell her that in person. But Angel Reese valued Weatherspoon’s guidance.

“I think you move with a lot of grace, come to the situation that did happen. It was very unfortunate for a lot of us, more than you know. I kind of took from it like I always told you, people come in your life for a reason and a season. And I think you came in my life for the right reason and the right season,” she said. “I can’t speak for anybody else, but I think you came into my life for the right reason and the right season, and we forever locked in. I’m just so thankful that it was that right time. It was the perfect time.”

But despite the abrupt exit from the Sky, Weatherspoon has moved on and is currently coaching in the 3-on-3 league Unrivaled for Vinyl BC.

In the end, if there’s one thing to take from her conversations, it’s how much Angel Reese values the role her coaches played in her journey, even when their lessons were tough to swallow in the moment.