Rookies aren’t known for being consistent.
It’s an unfair expectation. A debut season is meant for growing pains, for breathless highs and brutal lows. Yet in the first 24 games of her WNBA career, Angel Reese is building her name and fame on consistency.
Reese hasn’t finished a game with fewer than 10 rebounds since May 30. She broke Candace Parker’s record
More Top Picks Best Body Socks For Autism
for consecutive double-doubles before the streak ended at 15 last week. And this steady success paved the way for Reese to be one of two rookies named to the WNBA All-Star roster that will face Team USA in Saturday’s All-Star Game in Phoenix (7:30 p.m., ABC-7).Even after multiple record-setting performances, Reese shrugged off her accolades: “I just let my game speak for itself.”
But for the Chicago Sky — coaches, players and fans alike — Reese is providing a steady foundation for a future the franchise has been attempting to build for nearly two decades.
“I never have to question what I’m going to get when I’m out there with Angel Reese,” guard Chennedy Carter said. “You’re always going to get a dog. An athlete who’s going to fight, who’s going to compete. When we’re out there on the court together, I feel as comfortable as ever.”
It’s hard to define what makes Reese unique as a rebounder. That’s because rebounding isn’t a singular action. There’s no shooting form to study; it’s a mix of footwork, verticality, anticipation and sheer will.
Elite rebounding goes something like this: A player looks at her opponent and says “no.” And then she says it again. And again. And again.
Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon described Reese’s rebounding as a state of stubbornness: “She does not accept the box-out.”
“It’s a want,” Weatherspoon told the Tribune. “If you can’t keep her off the glass, she’s going to go to the glass. And she’s not going to stop going.”
For Reese, rebounding starts with anticipation. Her knack for rebounding has been honed by studying shots, but often it’s instinctual: When the shot goes up, Reese knows where it will land.
Getting to the ball is a different challenge. Fighting for rebounds on the low block is a mix between a two-step and a fistfight. Reese begins her box-out before the shot even goes up. She rarely fronts in the post, keeping herself between the opponent and the rim, using her hands to keep her angle when she’s looking off in help defense.
Reese knows when to go low, digging into her legs to knock a defender off balance. Other times it makes more sense to use her speed to dodge around a defender, sticking out a hand to prevent a clean rebound and then scrapping for the loose ball.
At 6-foot-3, Reese isn’t always the tallest player in the paint. But more often than not, she’s the one coming down with the ball.
“She’s playing against elite athletes and they know it’s what she does,” Weatherspoon said, “and she still finds a way to get herself in there to get a second-chance opportunity because of her movement, because of understanding where that ball might come off. There’s a science behind what she does.”
Weatherspoon starts many conversations with Reese by asking a question: What did you find? What did you see? How did you get better? What is your lesson?
She doesn’t want to give Reese all the answers. Sometimes the coach doesn’t even have them herself. Provoking this internal questioning is a key to Weatherspoon’s approach to developing Reese as a player on and off the court — instilling curiosity, a drive to find details big and small that can be improved upon.
Weatherspoon sees contentment as the ultimate enemy of a young player. No matter the score or stat line or record set on any given night, she doesn’t want Reese ever to feel satisfied.
More Top Picks Best Desk Lamps With Usb Charging
This isn’t just about basketball, although for Reese and Weatherspoon, everything is at least a little bit about basketball. When Weatherspoon first met the rookie, she didn’t want to just talk ball. She asked Reese about her background, about what drove her to Maryland and then LSU before landing in Chicago.
Weatherspoon already knew part of Reese’s story from afar. She remained close with LSU coach Kim Mulkey after years of overlapping through their shared alma mater of Louisiana Tech. While the pair did not discuss Reese during her transition from college to the WNBA, Weatherspoon understood the type of player she was getting by watching how Reese worked in her college system — and how Mulkey coached her.
Almost upon Reese’s arrival in Chicago, Weatherspoon knew she was the right fit. Reese wants to be coached. And she wants to be coached hard. That hunger for improvement defines how the entire Sky organization approaches her development.
For player development coach David Simon, most days with Reese start with the same question, chirped in a teasing tone: “You got my clips?”
Some rookies have to be prodded to go into the film room. Not Reese. She has watched every shot she has missed this season — more than once. Simon spends hours with Reese poring over film, comparing past losses and wins to upcoming matchups with a goal of making visible progress each week in key categories such as restricted-area shooting.
The breakneck pace of a rookie season doesn’t leave time for Reese to make some of the large-scale improvements that will elevate her game — most notably with her shot, which will be a major focus of the offseason. So Simon focuses on fundamentals to get the most out of Reese in her first year as a pro.
“As a rookie — as any player – she has a really strong ability to watch something and be able to apply it very quickly,” Simon told the Tribune. “We’re not repeating a lot of stuff. If she gets something wrong, she knows it and she’s going to do everything possible to not do it again.”
For Reese, learning the game goes beyond studying her own tape. She easily rattles off the list of players after whom she models herself: Sylvia Fowles, A’ja Wilson, DeWanna Bonner, Breanna Stewart.
Reese is quick to track down veteran stars after games — or, in the case of former MVP Tina Charles, during breaks between plays — to talk through footwork or positioning in the post. And these experienced players are seeking her out in kind, seeing themselves in the rookie.
“She wants to get better,” Simon said. “She never lets it mentally affect going into the next possession or going into the next game. But she knows when something isn’t right and she wants to figure it out. Like, ‘Show me where I made a mistake, what could have happened, how I could have stopped that.’”
Life is never slow for Reese. And that’s just how she wants it.
The monthlong break in the WNBA season won’t be much of a rest. Shortly after the All-Star Game, Reese will travel to Paris for the Olympics, where she will sit courtside to envision one of her next goals: making Team USA for the 2028 Games.
But while she continues to up the ante for her expectations, Reese still is learning how to sit with her accomplishments.
Reese is a perfectionist. At times she struggles to give herself grace, to lift her head and look around. It’s easy to focus on the work, to get lost in the misses and mistakes. When she speeds up too much, Reese relies on Sky coaches — along with a slew of support from teammates and family — to slow things back down.
“I can get antsy,” Reese said. “I want to get it done now — all of it. It relieves a lot of pressure, having your coaches believe in you and tell you all the time, ‘You’re doing fine, you’re doing great,’ even when I feel like I’m not. It gives me a lot of confidence because I do have a lot of expectations for myself.”
For now, Reese is trusting the formula that got her this far. Show up. Put in the work. Memorize every mistake. Celebrate every accomplishment.
More Top Picks Best Back Massagers
The rest will come with time.