Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese wasn’t a top-three selection in 2024 WNBA Draft, but her popularity has been just as high as any rookie presently in the league.

Reese’s status as a star player at LSU took off with a national title win in 2022 and a budding rivalry with Caitlin Clark. Her popularity scored her lucrative name, image and likeness deals but also drew hate and criticism her way.

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That was apparent on Saturday when she appeared to cheer on her teammate Chennedy Carter following a hip-check on Clark. Reese was then fined $1,000 for skipping postgame media availability.

On Monday, Reese talked to reporters about the spotlight on her and her team. She said she’ll take the good with the bad, and if that means playing the villain, then so be it.

"It all started from the national championship game," Reese said." I’ve been dealing with this for two years now. Understanding, yeah, negative things have probably been said about me, but honestly, I’ll take that because look where women’s basketball is. People are talking about women’s basketball (who) you would never think would be talking about women’s basketball.

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"People are pulling up to games. We got celebrities coming to games, sold out arenas, just because of one single game. And just look at that. I’ll take that role. I’ll take the bad guy role. And I’ll continue to take that on and be that villain for my teammates. If I wanna be that, I know I’ll go down in history. I’ll look back in 20 years like the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me too. I want y’all to realize that."

Through seven games, 10.6 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. She’s seventh in rebounds per game across the entire league.

Chicago lost to Indiana on Saturday, 71-70. The team fell to 3-4 on the season.

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Recent archaeological excavations in Israel have revealed a rare find: early Christian art from around 1,500 years ago.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced the discovery in a Facebook post on May 23. The art was found in an ancient church in the city of Rahat, located in the northern Negev Desert.

The church dates back to the Byzantine era, and historians believe the wall art was crafted by pilgrims arriving from Gaza. The art, mostly of boats, was drawn in the sixth century, which roughly marked the beginning of the early Middle Ages.

"These intriguing drawings may have been left by Christian pilgrims arriving by ship to the Gaza port – their first inland stop was this Rahat church; continuing from here on to other sites throughout the country," the IAA explained.

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According to experts, the art was drawn between the end of the Byzantine period and the early Islamic period. Ships have been symbolic to Christianity since ancient times, but archaeologists believe the ships in the drawings may have represented what pilgrims actually traveled on.

"Pilgrims visited the church and left their personal mark in the form of ship drawings on its walls," the IAA explained. "The ship is indeed an old Christian symbol, but in this case – apparently, it is a true graphical depiction of real ships in which the pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land."

The early Christians were likely on their way to ancient sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem when they stopped in the Negev.

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"The pilgrims began their pilgrimage following Roman roads leading to sites sacred to Christendom, such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the monasteries in the Negev Hills, and in the Sinai," the Facebook post added. "It is reasonable that their first stop after alighting from the ships in Gaza port was this very church revealed in our excavations south of Rahat. This site lies only a half-day’s walk from the port."

As for how the historians analyzed the imagery that the pilgrims left, one expert speculated that an artist may have attempted to draw a three-dimensional drawing of a ship.

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"One of the ships drawn on the church walls is depicted as a line drawing, but yet it may be discerned that its bow is slightly pointed, and that there are oars on both sides of the vessel," Professor Deborah Cvikel said in a statement. "This may be an aerial depiction of the ship, though it seems the artist was attempting a three-dimensional drawing."

"It may be that the lines below it portray the path beaten by the oars through the water," she added. "Ships or crosses left by visiting Christian pilgrims as witness to their visit are found also in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre church. "

IAA director Eli Escusido called the discovery "surprising" and said that it shines a light on sixth century life.

""This surprising and intriguing find of ship drawings in a Northern Negev Byzantine-period church opens a window for us to the world of Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land 1500 years ago, and provides first-hand evidence about the ships they traveled in and the maritime world of that time," he said.

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