Louisiana State University basketball star Angel Reese revealed in a Vogue interview and photo spread Wednesday that she’s planning to enter the WNBA draft and forgo her last year of college eligibility, saying she hopes to be “one of the greatest basketball players to play, ever.”
Reese said her decision to share the news with the legendary fashion magazine was inspired by Serena Williams, who announced her retirement from tennis in a photo shoot with Vogue in 2022.
“I didn’t want anything to be basic,” Reese explained
“I’ve done everything I wanted to in college,” she continued. “I’ve won a national championship, I’ve gotten [Southeastern Conference] Player of the Year, I’ve been an All-American. My ultimate goal is to be a pro.”
Her announcement comes two days after her final game with the LSU Tigers, who lost 94-87 to the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament.
Reese’s star power, along with that of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, helped her final college sports appearance shatter the record for the most-watched women’s basketball game in history. The highly anticipated showdown averaged 12.3 million viewers, beating out the record of 9.9 million average viewers set last year during LSU’s NCAA championship victory over Iowa.
Reese told Vogue she’s ready to be humbled as a newcomer to the WNBA, which is only drafting 36 new players.
“I want to start at the bottom again,” she said. “I want to be a rookie again and build myself back up; I want to be knocked down and learn and grow at the next level.”
Reese added she’s looking forward to “working with women that have kids, women that have a family to feed.”
“I’m going to have to work my butt off every single day and grind,” she said. “And who wouldn’t want that? I don’t want anything in my life to be easy.”
You can view her full Vogue spread here.
This post originally appeared on HuffPost.