Source: Greg Nelson / Getty
SU’s own
Angel Reese has been getting a lot of recognition after her team defeated Iowa to take home their first women’s NCAA basketball championship. She trended in the media for her vengeful taunting toward the University of Iowa and for later winning the women’s basketball championship in April.
But now she is trending for a completely different reason: modeling skimpy swimsuits in a new issue of
Sports Illustrated in its highly anticipated annual swimsuit edition. Reese is featured alongside the likes of heavy-hitting beauties like Lakshmi Padma and Olivia Dunne, who are also shown modeling swimsuits in this year’s
Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
The 6’3 college basketball star recently collaborated with
Sports Illustrated and the two of them created some masterpieces, adding to her growing reputation as a beauty symbol.
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Unofficially known as the Bayou Barbie, Reese opened up to
Sports Illustrated and provided some key details about where her flattering nickname came from.
“The name Bayou Barbie came from a fan in Baton Rouge. She just called me the Bayou Barbie, and my mom heard it and we just ran with it,”
Reese told Sports Illustrated. “I mean, it kind of fits me. I’m in Baton Rouge, which is the bayou, and then the Barbie part is my nails, lashes, hair [which are] always done on the court, so yeah, it went together.”
Sports Illustrated wasn’t Reese’s first time in the world of modeling.
The basketball star has routinely used her Instagram page as a place where she showcases herself in apparel ranging from swimsuits to underwear and more.
In one Instagram post pinned to the top of her account, Reese is shown in photos modeling underwear by Calvin Klein in what is likely one of her lucrative NIL (name, image and likeness) deals with major corporations.
In fact, just last week,
Reese boasted on Instagram that she was given for free a new Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 for her 21st birthday. The sports car is worth about $130,000.
Her NIL valuation has surged since she won the national championship.
At the start of the NCAA Tournament, her NIL valuation was estimated to be at more than $370,000. More than one month later, that same NIL valuation has soared to more than $1 million.
“She’s not just a student-athlete anymore or a marketable women’s basketball player where we’re doing these one-off deals,” Reese’s agent, Jeanine Ogbonnaya, told
On3, an online resource tracking news in college sports. “I think at this point, she’s got the following to back it up where she can be doing long-term partnerships that truly align with her brand and her messaging, and finding those brands that align with that as well.”
Keep reading to see Angel Reese in her Sports Illustrated shoot below.
