Golden State Valkyries Throw Angel Reese’s Own Taunt Back at Her Parade

The Golden State Valkyries celebrated their WNBA championship with a parade in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Thousands of fans in lavender lined the Embarcadero to cheer the team after a ferry ride across the bay.

But the cameras caught something that nearly stole the show.

Valkyries staff were spotted wearing shirts with Angel Reese’s face morphed into the crying Michael Jordan meme.

The shirts also featured her signature “too small” hand gesture.

Fans shared a photo from the parade of a hand holding a pink pacifier.

A small paper tag was attached to it.

The tag showed the same crying meme face.

It read: “if found return to: ATL.”

The fan who posted the photo said these pacifiers were actually being handed out to the crowd.

The jabs trace back to Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.

After the Atlanta Dream blew out Golden State to take a 2-1 series lead, Reese was seen doing the “too small” taunt toward the Valkyries’ bench.

The gesture was aimed at forward Aminata Gueye, who had guarded Reese for much of the series.

Reese finished that night with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

She looked ready to win a title.

Things did not go her way after that.

Reese never scored more than 15 points in any of the final four games.

Golden State won Game 7 to take the championship.

The Valkyries did not waste any time giving the taunt back.

Gueye posted a photo of Reese’s hand mid-taunt on Instagram on Saturday night, right after the win.

Tiffany Hayes made the same gesture on an Instagram live while the team celebrated in the locker room.

Reese was not the only target at the parade.

Valkyries center Kiah Stokes stepped off the ferry wearing a shirt that copied ESPN’s title-odds chart from late July.

The chart listed the Fever, Aces, Lynx, Liberty and Dream as the five best bets to win it all.

Golden State was sixth at the time.

It never made the list.

ESPN Insights answered on X with a joke.

It wrote: “Sorry we were a little late to the party.”

It also noted that Golden State went 13-4 after the chart came out.

By August 10, its analytics had the Valkyries as title favorites.

The doubts were easy to understand at that point.

The chart came out while the Valkyries were 10-7 at the midpoint.

They were just 3-6 against playoff teams.

They had no true star.

They finished the year without a single All-WNBA player.

That was a first for a champion in league history.

ESPN’s chart had the Fever at 24% and the Aces at 23 percent.

Golden State sat sixth.

Then everything flipped.

The Valkyries finished the regular season 32-12 as the No. 2 seed.

Stokes, who won her fourth championship, also set a Finals record with 19 blocks.

As of November 4, ESPN’s updated chart gave Golden State a 100 percent chance of winning the Finals.

The trolling at the parade was not just about Reese’s gesture.

It was also about the criticism that followed.

Sophie Cunningham’s co-host, Drew Hanlen, had a bold criticism of Reese on Monday’s episode of the “No Hesitation” podcast.

Hanlen is an NBA trainer.

He acknowledged the improvements in Reese’s game.

But he pointed out that the former LSU star needs to work on her touch around the rim.

“Improving her touch around the rim is ultimately what’s going to lead her to being the player that she can become… Just offensively, that’s the next step,” he said.