Hailey Van Lith, Angel Reese are loving being reunited after Sky’s WNBA draft pick: ‘Run it back’
Hailey Van Lith and Angel Reese are set to rejoin forces on the court this summer.
The Chicago Sky ensured that Monday night, when they selected her No. 11 overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft.
Shortly after Van Lith heard her name called, Reese took to social media to express her excitement.
“We ain’t do it right the first time,” Reese wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Let’s run it backkkkk.”
The feeling was mutual.
“Excited to be around her again,” Van Lith said.
Van Lith played with Reese at LSU for the 2023-24 season, losing in the Elite Eight to UCLA. After that season, Reese was drafted No. 7 overall, and Van Lith transferred to TCU.
Over the last year, the two have maintained contact, and Van Lith said they have “mutual respect” for each other as women and players.
“We have a lot of similarities with how we carry ourselves and our mindset,” Van Lith said. “She’s a dog, man. She turns up her intensity with everyone around her so I’m excited to be in that environment with her again, where she can pull more out of me than I think I have.”
Van Lith was the second of back-to-back picks the Sky had in Monday’s draft. Chicago picked Slovenian forward Ajša Sivka with the No. 10 pick.
With the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire after this season, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association has been very clear about what its top priorities are for the next deal.
Players are fighting for higher wages, a new economic model and improved benefits.
But WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has repeatedly said the new CBA will be “transformational,” she said on Monday that it’ll also have to be “fair.”
“We want to have a fair deal for all, but it has to be within the confines of a sustainable economic model that goes on for 10 years,” Engelbert said.
Engelbert said negotiations remain ongoing. She said the players union “recently” sent a proposal to the league and the two sides plan to meet at the bargaining table in the near future.
“I’m very optimistic that we’ll get something done,” Engelbert said, “and it’ll be transformational.”
