Angel Reese has garnered significant acclaim for her relentless hustle on the boards and exceptional defensive skills during her rookie campaign in the WNBA. However, this commitment and energy weren’t always evident in her high school days.
During an enlightening conversation on the Come and Talk 2 Me podcast hosted by Mark Jackson and his son Bluu Jackson, former NBA standout Sam Cassell lifted the veil on Reese’s earlier approach to the game. He remarked,
“Just watching her grow up through the ranks in Baltimore High School and seeing her now play the game of basketball, I thought she was so lazy in high school because she was so much better than anyone. Sometimes she’d miss a layup, get a rebound, miss another layup, the other team would get the ball, and she wouldn’t run back down court.”
Having closely followed Reese during her time at St. Frances Academy, Cassell, who shares Baltimore roots with the Chicago Sky center, expressed his delight in her transformation into a dynamic player who is hustling on both ends of the court and making her city proud. He added,
“So seeing her play in the WNBA right now has been a joy to me; watching her perform is like, ‘Wow! We’ve got another one from our town doing something positive and making it!'”
It’s astonishing to picture Reese as a lackluster player when considering her impact at both ends of the floor throughout her collegiate career with Maryland and LSU, as well as her impressive rookie season with the Sky.
Reese made waves in her debut WNBA season, marking herself in the record books as the first player to average more than 13 rebounds per game (13.1) and surpassing Sylvia Fowles’ longstanding record for the most boards collected in a season.
Though she had to sit out the last six matches of the season due to an injury, reigning MVP A’ja Wilson managed to surpass her, setting a new benchmark for total rebounds in a campaign with 451—just five more than the rookie. Nevertheless, Reese established a remarkable record for offensive rebounds in a single season with 172.
Her instinct for snagging offensive boards and capitalizing on second-chance opportunities was pivotal in her breaking Candace Parker’s WNBA record for the most consecutive double-doubles, achieving an astonishing 15 straight games. While she finished in second place to Caitlin Clark in the quest for the Rookie of the Year accolade, the excitement surrounding Reese’s prospects is palpable and widely discussed.
