While Angel Reese was watching the 2025 WNBA Finals from home, she texted her friend and former Sky star Kahleah Copper to say: “Just give me one game in the playoffs.”
Lo and behold, she arrived a year later. After being traded to the Dream, Reese is now in the Finals MVP hunt.
A truly remarkable leap.
Reese credits her success to the practice of manifesting, what she calls speaking positively into her and her teammates’ lives. Interestingly enough, she also practices what I’ll call “anti-manifesting” — speaking misfortune into her opponents’ lives.
Just ask Valkyries rookie Aminata Gueye. With Valkyries starting center Kiah Stokes on the bench in Games 2 and 3, Gueye did her best against Reese. But Reese terrorized her, treating her presence as an invitation to drive, finish and flex.
“You can’t guard me,” Reese told Gueye, shaking her head and trotting back on defense. In more heated moments, Reese told Gueye that she can’t “[bleep] with” her and that Gueye is a “bum ass.”
Observing Reese’s intimidation tactics can be momentarily unsettling. Gueye has played exactly seven games in her WNBA career and is not exactly the toughest foe.
But you have to remember that Reese anti-
manifests everyone equally, regardless of pedigree. In the semifinals, she did it to former MVP Jonquel Jones, telling her that she was too small and couldn’t guard her.
It’s part of the game for Reese, who says she intentionally tries to get in her opponents’ heads. After Reese recorded her third straight double-double in Game 3 of the Finals, studio analyst and Dream co-owner Renee Montgomery asked Reese what’s going through her head when she gets down in a defensive stance, clapping in her opponent’s face.
Reese said she wants anybody she’s guarding to be “scared as [bleep].” Still, she acknowledged that not every part of her emotional range is calculated.
“I have my highs and my lows,” Reese said during the semifinals. “It will definitely get to a moment where I’m on my high, and then I come to the bench and be like: ‘[We need to] manage our emotions.’ And the team is looking like: ‘You saying that?’ ”
I like these little admissions from Reese in part because they do not feed the debate about whether she is a hero or a villain. They bring Reese into focus as something more real: a young, developing star who is influencing and being influenced by her teammates. They also reveal a self-awareness that, to a great coach, can be a strong foundation for growth.
• • •
The most common question I’m getting about Reese from longtime Sky fans, besides “How does she get her game-day blush to look so good?” is why the Sky couldn’t have gotten this version of her.
Did they fail to develop her into a Defensive Player of the Year and All-WNBA second-team player, or is she just benefiting from a better home in Atlanta?
I think it’s a little bit of both. To me, Reese has looked like the same player she always has been. Which is to say, someone who improves every year and who thrives in big moments. Is anyone actually surprised that Reese is feasting on her first Finals experience, averaging 18 points and 12 rebounds on the biggest stage?
In Chicago, Reese never played in a playoff game. She never even made it through a full season without injury. Now she’s healthy, enjoying the fruits of Atlanta’s labor and adding to them on a team with an All-Star core the Dream spent years building.
One place the Sky clearly failed is her three-point shooting. Dream coach Karl Smesko had a plan to get her to shoot it straighter, and Reese is now connecting on 44.1% of her three-point attempts in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Sky center and franchise pillar Kamilla Cardoso has attempted only two three-point shots in her career.
Not a good look for the Sky’s player-development operation.
Reese’s departure and continued rise also don’t reflect well on their overall management. They traded up to draft Reese in 2024, which meant giving up the 2026 pick that became All-WNBA guard Olivia Miles. Then, after Reese broke out as an All-Star, they let her walk for two first-round draft picks in 2027 and 2028 that likely will come at the end of the round.
What I’ve argued all year long is that they shouldn’t have made such a big investment in someone they’re pitching as the face of the franchise without a rock-solid plan and the patience to see it through.
That they fired Reese’s mentor Teresa Weatherspoon after one season in 2024, couldn’t repair the relationship when Reese publicly called out the team in 2025 and never developed her shooting range suggests the plan was flaky.
So flaky that the Sky should be feeling a little bit like Gueye right now: unnerved about how and whether they’re going to get back on track.
I worry that the Sky aren’t feeling this at all. The front office has said that they’re satisfied with the return they got in dealing Reese to Atlanta — that two first-round picks are significant — and that they don’t regret the draft capital given up to get her.
I’ve said this before about the Sky, and I’ll say it again: You can’t learn from something you don’t acknowledge as a mistake.