LSU women’s basketball player Sa’Myah Smith is doing better after a scary scene in which she fainted as her team was visiting the White House.
When LSU met president Joe Biden on Friday, Smith collapsed, ultimately receiving treatment from White House staff and getting rolled away in a wheelchair.
Smith spoke to Nola.com in positive spirits after the incident was behind her.
“I’m great, better — way better than earlier,” she told the outlet from the team’s hotel in Washington D.C. on Friday.
“I don’t quite remember how everything happened. I just remember waking up pretty scared. The last thing I remember is telling one of my coaches, ‘Hey, I think I’m going to pass out.'”
She said it was hot and they’d been standing for “quite awhile.”
She received a gift from President Biden, a vintage leather basketball with an inscription from him.
“Sa’Myah — it was wonderful (to) have you at the White House,” the autograph read. “You are the best. /Joe Biden 5-26-23”
LSU coach Kim Mulkey said that this was not the first time Smith has fainted.
“She did this on her recruiting visit,” Mulkey revealed. “We should have thought about it earlier.”
Smith, a freshman forward from DeSoto, Texas., averaged 4.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game for the Tigers this past season.
LSU’s White House visit came after some members of the team took exception to first lady Jill Biden broaching the idea of also inviting Iowa, who were the runners-up in the national title game.
Star forward Angel Reese repeatedly referred to the idea as a slight.
“I don’t accept [Jill Biden’s] apology because of, ‘you said what you said’… and like, you can’t go back on certain things that you say,” Reese said on a podcast shortly after the national title game. “[Iowa] can have that spotlight. We’ll go to the Obamas. We’ll see Michelle. We’ll see Barack.”
It was all water on the bridge on Friday, though, as Reese and the first lady exchanged a hug.
