As the Orlando Magic prepared for a Play-In matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers, Wendell Carter Jr. made it clear that the pressure surrounding both his career and Angel Reese’s headline-grabbing rise has not changed the way they operate.
Carter, who has become a defensive cornerstone for Orlando, said he and Reese have learned to block out the constant attention that comes with being one of basketball’s most visible couples.
According to Carter, the key has been creating distance from the outside conversation.
“We’re both competitors,” Carter said to Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson. “Before games, after games, we tell each other what we should do night in and night out and not to pay too much attention to the outside noise. We call it the white noise.”
He added that both players have already established themselves in their respective leagues and are focused on continuing to build. “Try not to pay too much attention to it and just understand that we’ve already built our foundation in both our leagues and continue to build on it,” he said.
The comments arrive during a stretch in which Angel Reese has been nearly impossible to miss, both on and off the court. The WNBA star recently became the first female athlete to wear her own signature sneaker on the cover of Vogue Australia, posing in her Reebok AR1 “Navy Halo” shoes.
Months earlier, she became the first professional athlete to walk in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
Despite the growing celebrity around Reese, Carter said their relationship is built around basketball first. The pair regularly talks through performances and helps keep each other grounded.
“I’d give them a couple of points,” Carter said. “We’d have to win by two, so we would win 15 to 13.”
