There is something about having a man in your life that you see as a father figure, an uncle, a brother or simply a friend. Oftentimes you feel protected, cared for and an overall sense of happiness. However, a lot of men tend to ruin that feeling when they either make sexual comments about you. For some, it is not their intention to and for others that is their way of dropping hints to the person about their feelings. The problem with this is that often the feelings are not reciprocated. If someone is calling you their father figure (e.g., dad), uncle, brother or friend, chances are very high that they do not see you in a sexual manner.

This issue has been addressed earlier this week with Angel Reese and Shaq on her podcast, “Unapologetically Angel.” During the podcast, Reese is asking Shaquille O’Neal various questions about his experience in the games and how he deals with certain topics such as confidence in oneself, his history with different sports and salaries. The issue began when he started hinting at her and her fellow players’ bodies. 

He goes on to say that when men are watching, “we like that. We like who we like and when yall are dunking— oh man.” 

You can see Reese begin to get a little uncomfortable with the topic, with the way that she signals to someone behind the scenes. However, Shaq does not stop there, he continues and focuses on Reese by giving her a sweet compliment. Only a couple minutes later, he ruins it by telling her to focus on what guys like, to which Reese dismisses. Stating that they do not care what the guys like which is rightfully so. It is basketball, they should be focused on the game and not what the women are wearing. He tells her that that’s their problem and then proceeds to say that they need to 1) lower the hoop so men can see more women dunk and 2) asked her to imagine herself in the “little a** shorts” from that “Wildin’ Out” show dunking and how many T-shirts she would sell. She immediately says no and he kept going on and on about it while she was clearly over the topic.

The problem is Shaq is about 30 years her senior and is someone she sees as an idol or even an uncle. She has been around his children, specifically . Therefore, it is creepy for someone you see as a close family friend or even a mentor to be telling you to sexualize yourself so that you can make more money. I think she would have wanted any other advice besides that, probably something revolving around the actual sport and playing  or about how to find the right target population, without having to pimp herself out. For example, there are a lot of little girls that love Angel Reese. He could have told her to tap into that target population especially if it is Halloween coming up and people may want to dress up like her. There were a lot of ways this could have gone but her obvious discomfort with the topic should have been enough to change the conversation. 

Lastly, if you are watching women playing basketball, you should be watching the actual game and not how they look!

Image from Unapologetically Angel via YouTube