The heart-wrenching reason behind Angel Reese wearing leggings that left fans in emotional turmoil (Details in comment)

Fashionably functional, Angel Reese marches to the beat of her own drum.

That march happens to have a distinct look to it, too.

Bayou Barbie has shined in Kim Mulkey’s offense, putting up Shaq-like numbers while taking LSU to heights it hasn’t hit since the late 1970s. Not bad for a woman who found herself on the sidelines just a few years ago.

Reese isn’t just one of college basketball’s best players. She’s also among its flashiest. Not only does Reese rock those iconic lime-green Kobe 6 Grinches. She also dons one of the sport’s greatest sights — a sleek one-legged sleeve.

But why? Is the move purely aesthetic? Or does it have a more significant meaning?

The Sporting News examines Angel Reese and her admiration of the single leg sleeve.

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Why Angel Reese wears one legging during LSU games

Reese’s commitment to the one-legged sleeve is practical in some ways and symbolic in others. The junior uses the apparatus in part due to an injury she suffered while at Maryland.

During her freshman year, Reese suffered a Jones fracture in her left foot. The injury kept her out much of the season and limited her to just 15.3 minutes per game, a meager amount given her billing as the No. 2 player in the country coming out of high school.

Despite having to had a rod inserted into her leg, the injury hasn’t affected Reese too much going forward. It did leave a gnarly scar, though, one Reese prefers to hide during games.

So, that’s reason No. 1. But Reese credits a pair of the WNBA’s most popular players — A’ja Wilson and T’ea Cooper — as another inspiration for her fashion choice.

“I cover the scar for one, then my two players that I really admire, Te’a Cooper and A’ja Wilson, they also wear it, too,” Reese said ahead of LSU’s Elite Eight clash with Miami. “So it’s swag. But I’ve used it to cover my scar.”

Swag and scars. That makes for quite the combo, don’t you think?