Angel Reese is turning pressure into diamonds
The young star celebrates her second career All-Star nomination this year as she continues to break records in the WNBA.
Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series from SB Nation profiling the 2025 WNBA All-Star teams. Today, let’s get to know Angel Reese.
Sometimes the hardest situations make people stronger, and that’s certainly been the case in Angel Reese’s young career. Reese was drafted No. 7 overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft by the Chicago Sky, but the expectations were already put on her before she even played her first WNBA game. She’s been the target of unfair social media hate, harassment, and scrutiny, making the fact that she has still been able to have a record-breaking season and a half in the WNBA all the more impressive.
Most of the hate towards Reese is unwarranted. It started during the NCAA championship game in 2023, when LSU beat Iowa, and Reese did her infamous ring hand gesture towards Caitlin Clark. At the time and even to this day, Clark has stated she didn’t think much of the gesture; it was merely a heated moment of trash talk between two legendary competitors, and it was warranted, given that LSU won the game. Yet, that has not stopped people from continuing to unfairly judge, harass, and criticize Reese.
In her first professional season, Reese averaged 13.6 points along with 13.1 boards per game, the highest rebounding average in the league. She also broke the record for highest rebounds per game in WNBA history as a rookie with that number. Her 446 total rebounds in 2024 were also the most boards by any player in a single season in WNBA history.
Reese also holds the record for most consecutive games with 20+ rebounds, which she did three times in a row in 2024. Her 26 double-doubles were the second most in a single season in WNBA history, and with 15 of those being in consecutive games, she also broke the record for most consecutive double-doubles in WNBA history.
It’s honestly exhausting just reading all of that, not to mention doing it. On top of it all, producing so prolifically right after a full NCAA college season, the March Madness tournament, and only having a few weeks in between for rest, is wild to imagine. Then add in all the aforementioned negativity she’s faced, and well, it’s pretty incredible what Reese has been able to lock in and do.
The wild thing about Reese’s career trajectory is that she is already this good, and still has a lot of her game that could be improved. But the fact that this is where she is starting from — smashing rebounding records and being a double-double machine — is a sign the fully developed version of Reese will be a masterpiece.
Something that could help Reese’s development immensely would be if she had a true veteran point guard on her team. That was the plan when Courtney Vandersloot came back to Chicago, but she went down with a season-ending ACL injury not long after the season started. We’ve gotten glimpses of what the fully realized Angel could look like when she has the chance to play with other playmaking-minded point guards (with one example being, ironically given the state of so much W discourse, when she played with Caitlin Clark at the 2024 All-Star Game. She also looked great playing with Chelsea Gray in Unrivaled).
Unfortunately, Chicago’s vision could not be realized to the extent they wanted it to be this season, but Reese is still doing what she can to impress on the court.
In her sophomore season, Reese is putting up 14 points per game and grabbing 12.6 rebounds. Other than her own record from last season, that’s still the highest average rebound number in WNBA history. She’s also improved from 1.9 assists per game to dishing 3.8 dimes per game in 2025. Her field goal percentage has risen from 39.1% to 44.6%.
Overall, so far, we’ve seen a solid progression from year one to two for Reese in the WNBA. Her participation in Unrivaled this winter definitely helped. Her Rose BC were able to win the championship (which Reese missed due to injury), and Reese won Defensive Player of the Year and made it onto the Second Team All-Unrivaled.
Where’s Reese’s ceiling? It’s hard to tell. If she is put in a good enough position to thrive, she could be one of the best stars the WNBA has ever seen when it’s all said and done. She’s already a two-time WNBA All-Star in two years, and will likely end up on Gold Medal Team USA squads in the years ahead. The hard part will be the Sky’s team-building process for the next few years. Between the influx of expansion drafts, free agency chaos, and the fact that the Sky keep trading away their draft picks, it’ll be hard to surround Reese with high-level talent. That might mean she just leaves as a free agent when her rookie-scale contract is up.
But regardless of what’s been out of her control during her early career, Angel Reese has thrived despite it. Her level of resilience is one that most wouldn’t be able to comprehend, and she’s let the pressure forge her into something beautiful. A diamond of the WNBA.