Sky star Angel Reese adapts to wrap on shooting hand after wrist injuries

INDIANAPOLIS — It wasn’t a perfect offseason for Sky star Angel Reese, but it was a net positive reinjuring her left, shooting wrist. She said she goes into this season, which opens Saturday at the Fever, “super blessed to be healthy” after a “great” offseason.

Regardless of the injury, it was easier than the one going into her rookie season, which began with a whirlwind from the end of her LSU season to the draft to training camp.

Reese broke a bone in her wrist late last season with the Sky, then recovered and played in the Unrivaled three-on-three league before spraining it and missing the end of that season. She has been practicing and playing with her shooting hand taped for roughly two months.

“It’s been all right,” she said Saturday before the game. “I know how it feels to be injured and hit obstacles and hit that wall and just how you get back up. It humbles you. You feel like you’re so high. I felt like I was the highest at Unrivaled. I was playing my best basketball. And then I wasn’t able to play at the end of that, and even when I ended my season last year, my rookie season, I felt like I was going, going, going so well.

“God humbles you in the right ways at the right time. It was perfect timing. Everything happens with perfect timing. I’m just super blessed to be in the moment right now and be healthy.”

The Sky are opening in a nationally televised game against the Fever and Caitlin Clark, a rivalry the WNBA is leaning hard on this season. Reese has mostly avoided the subject this year, but said Saturday that Indianapolis has an excellent environment for the sport.

“You can see how they love women’s basketball here,” she said. “It’s a sports city, sports town. So I know they come out and support. You see everybody with jerseys walking down the street, and that’s super exciting to see.”