“To sum it up, it’s been loopy,” she says of her time at LSU. A self-described “girly woman” who’s additionally calls herself “a killer on the court docket,” she relishes the chance to be herself. “I didn’t must be in a field,” she says. A fan of crop tops and mini skirts, Reese’s youthful, splashy outfits are punctuated with designer equipment: Chanel baggage, Rick Owens sneakers, Prada beanies, and so forth. Whereas Mulkey—who herself is understood for her high-wattage private type—inspired Reese to embrace her individuality, on the identical time, Reese says, the coach pushed her. “She will get on me exhausting, and that’s one thing I would like. We’ve that form of relationship the place we are able to bump heads but additionally be on the identical web page: We simply wish to win.”

With one other yr of faculty eligibility left, her resolution to go professional, Reese says, was not made flippantly—particularly contemplating all that she’s forsaking. She might by no means expertise a fan base just like the one she has in Baton Rouge, she tells Vogue; the sources in most WNBA organizations, from the employees right down to the locker room amenities, pale compared to these at LSU; and flying non-public, as she has relatively often over the previous few years, will now not be the norm. Reese, although, is okay with all of that. “I wish to begin on the backside once more,” she says. “I wish to be a rookie once more and construct myself again up; I wish to be knocked down and study and develop on the subsequent degree.”