2025 WNBA All-Star Game: Angel Reese is turning pressure into diamonds
Publisher’s note: This story is part of a series From SB Nation Profiling the all-star teams of the WNBA 2025. Today, let’s get to know Angel Reese.
Sometimes the most difficult situations make people stronger, and this has certainly been the case in the young career of Angel Reese. Reese was drafted n ° 7 in total in the draft of the WNBA 2024 by the Sky of Chicago, but the expectations have already been put on it before even playing its first WNBA match. She was the target of hate, harassment and unfair examination of social media, making the fact that she has always been able to have a record and a half season in the WNBA all the more impressive.
Most of hatred towards Reese is unjustified. It started in the NCAA championship match in 2023, when LSU beat the Iowa, and Reese made his famous gesture from the hand of the ring to Caitlin Clark. At the time and even to date, Clark said that she did not think much about the gesture; It was only an animated moment of trash speeches between two legendary competitors, and it was justified, since LSU won the match. However, that did not prevent people from continuing to judge unfairly, harass and criticize Reese.
During its first professional season, Reese collected an average of 13.6 points with 13.1 boards per match, the highest rebound in the league. She also broke the record for the highest rebounds per game in the history of the WNBA as a recruit with this issue. Its 446 total rebounds in 2024 were also the most advice from all players in a single season in the history of WNBA.
Reese also holds the record for most of the consecutive matches with more than 20 rebounds, which she did three times in a row in 2024. Her 26 double doubles were the second in a single season in the history of the WNBA, and with 15 of those who were in consecutive matches, she also broke the record for most of the double consecutive doubles in the history of the WNBA.
It is honestly exhausting when reading all of this, not to mention doing it. In addition to all this, producing so prolific just after a full season of the NCAA college, the March Madness tournament, and only having a few weeks for the two to rest, is wild to imagine. Then add all the aforementioned negativity to which she was confronted, well, it is quite incredible what Reese was able to block and do.
The wild thing about Reese’s career trajectory is that it is already as good, and still has a lot of its game which could be improved. But the fact that it is from there that it begins – breaking rebound records and being a double double machine – is a sign that the entirely developed version of Reese will be a masterpiece.
Something that could help Reese’s development would be a lot if she had a real veteran playmaker in her team. It was the plan when Courtney Vandersloot returned to Chicago, but she fell with an injury at the end of the LCA season shortly after the start of the season. We had an overview of what the fully achieved angel could look like when she has the chance to play with other gaming guards (with an example, given the state of so much speeches, when she played with Caitlin Clark in the 2024 stars game.
Unfortunately, Chicago’s vision could not be made since they wanted it to be this season, but Reese always does what it can to impress on the field.
During its second season, Reese set up 14 points per match and by entering 12.6 rebounds. Besides his own record last season, this is still the highest average rebound number in WNBA history. It also went from 1.9 assists per game to take 3.8 dimes per game in 2025. Its percentage of goals on the field increased from 39.1% to 44.6%.
On the whole, so far, we have seen a solid progression from the first to two years for Reese in the WNBA. His participation in an unrivaled this winter has definitively helped. His Rose BC was able to win the championship (which Reese missed due to an injury), and Reese won the defensive player of the year and was part of the second team.
Where is the Reese ceiling? It’s hard to say. If it is put in good position to thrive, it could be one of the best stars that the WNBA has ever seen when everything is said and done. She is already twice the WNBA All-Star in two years, and will probably find herself in the teams of the USA Golden team in the years to come. The difficult part will be the Sky team consolidation process for the coming years. Between the influx of expansion projects, free agency chaos and the fact that the sky continues to exchange its draft choices, it will be difficult to surround Reese with high -level talents. This could mean that it leaves just as free as an agent on a recruit scale is in place.
But no matter what was out of control at the start of his career, Angel Reese prospered despite this. Her level of resilience is the one that most could not understand, and she left the pressure to forge her to something beautiful. A WNBA diamond.
