Do we like them?Do we like Angel Reese?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Clean on harm and a real record of giving back, held back by a public spat with her own team and a thin record on wider issues.
Angel Reese is a Baltimore kid who went from St. Frances Academy to LSU, where she helped win the 2023 NCAA title by beating Caitlin Clark's Iowa. She was picked seventh in the 2024 WNBA draft by Chicago and has led the league in rebounding in each of her first three seasons. She's been a lightning rod the whole way.
The messiest chapter was her exit from Chicago. Late in the Sky's 10-34 season she told the Chicago Tribune she might have to move in a different direction if the team didn't improve, and the Sky suspended her for half a game over comments they called detrimental to the team. She apologised and said her words were taken out of context. Chicago then traded her to Atlanta in April 2026 for two first-round picks.
On the harm check, the record is clean. Searches turned up no harmful words or campaigning of her own on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet. One 2024 post, “protect young women in sports”, was read by some commentators as being about trans athletes, but she never explained it, so we don't pin a position on her. She has also spoken up against alleged racist abuse at games; the WNBA said it could not substantiate that particular report.
She has copped a lot of abuse herself. After the 2024 NCAA tournament she said she'd been attacked many times, with death threats, since the 2023 title. That kind of hate says nothing about her, and we don't count it either way. She has also turned online jibes about her scoring into a business and put some proceeds toward her foundation's anti-cyberbullying work.
The recent fuss is the Finals anthem row. Both Atlanta and Golden State left the court during the anthem for three straight games, yet most of the online backlash landed on Reese. The critics named in the report were an X user and OutKick's Jon Root, and the article carries no statement from her on it. Where you land depends on whether you see that as a team routine or a snub, but it's hardly a character issue.
The good stuff is real. In 2023 she gave $12,000 to the girls' basketball fund at her old school, which had helped cover her own tuition, and her foundation has run back-to-school drives. This season she won Defensive Player of the Year and helped Atlanta reach its first Finals since 2013. Golden State's coach called her an ultra competitor who backs teammates and calls them out when needed.