Dwight Howard’s ex Te'a Cooper endorses Angel Reese’s Rookie of the Year prospects: “ROY FR FR”

By Mathews Kannanthara

Modified Jun 13, 2024 15:05 GMT

Former NBA star Dwight Howard's ex, Te'a Cooper, endorsed Chicago Sky star rookie Angel Reese's prospects for the Rookie of the Year award. Cooper took to X, formerly Twitter, to highlight her pick for the WNBA 2024 ROY with much of the season still left to be played.

"Angel ROY FR FR," Cooper posted.

This came after Angel Reese put up her best performance yet in the Chicago Sky's loss against the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday. Reese registered a career-high 20 points, along with 10 rebounds, one assist and two steals, to lead the Sky in a losing effort. The contest also marked her fourth straight matchup with a double-double performance.

As the seventh overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, Reese is averaging an impressive 12.4 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.9 steals while shooting 38.5% from the field across the 11 games she's played. In an interview with CBS Sports, Reese credited her early success in the WNBA to her LSU coach Kim Mulkey.

"Kim Mulkey kind of prepared me for this moment," Reese said. "At LSU, our practice was like four hours. We were ready, we were working. I thought training was going to be harder. I think I was really prepared. I didn't have any WNBA surprises yet."

Though many may have assumed Caitlin Clark to win the ROY, Angel Reese is on the go to give the 2024 WNBA draft's first overall pick a competitive run for the award.

Angel Reese credits her role alongside Caitlin Clark for WNBA's surging popularity

Angel Reese's rivalry with Caitlin Clark stems all the way from their clash in the 2023 NCAA title game, which saw LSU defeat Iowa to clinch the title. The rivalry has arguably boiled over to the WNBA.

In an interview during team practice on June 3, Reese argued that Clark is not the only reason for the league's surging popularity and highlighted her "bad guy" role.

"It all started from the national championship game," Reese said. "And I've been dealing with this for two years now. And understanding, like, yeah, negative things have probably been said about me, but honestly, I'll take that because look where women's basketball is. People are talking about women's basketball that you never would think would be talking about women's basketball.

"People are pulling up to games. We've got celebrities coming to games, sold-out arenas. Just because of one single game. And just looking at that, I'll take that role, I'll take the bad guy role and I'll continue to take that on and be that for my teammates.

"I know I'll go down in history. I'll look back in 20 years and be like, 'Yeah, the reason why we 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."

Reese has arguably garnered a "bad guy" connotation in the WNBA ever since she was seen celebrating her teammate, Chennedy Carter, knocking down Clark during the Sky-Fever matchup on May 31.