{"id":928856,"date":"2026-10-11T09:40:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T09:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928856\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T09:40:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T09:40:48","slug":"im-supposed-to-be-here-angel-reeses-road-from-ridicule-to-the-wnba-finals-angel-reese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928856\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m supposed to be here\u2019: Angel Reese\u2019s road from ridicule to the WNBA finals | Angel Reese"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of folks owe Angel Reese<\/a> an apology after Friday night. They should probably form an orderly queue.<\/p>\n

Not that the bad-faith take merchants who have spent three years gleefully circulating her missed layups, likening her occasionally awkward footwork to \u201cBambi on ice\u201d and marveling at the supposed comic genius of \u201cmebounds\u201d<\/a> are likely to join it. The right-wing culture warriors<\/a> who turned one of the WNBA\u2019s most naturally gifted rebounders into a joke were never particularly interested in an honest assessment of her basketball abilities. But after Friday the punchline has never worn thinner.<\/p>\n

Reese\u2019s career has been measured against Caitlin Clark\u2019s<\/a> almost from the moment the two became household names, their rivalry inflated into a culture-war proxy battle<\/a> that neither player could fully control. Now Reese has reached the WNBA finals before her more celebrated contemporary, a delicious reversal for those who have spent three seasons insisting she didn\u2019t belong in the same conversation.<\/p>\n

On Friday in Brooklyn, Reese poured in a team-high 22 points with nine rebounds and two blocked shots as the Atlanta Dream completed a three-game sweep<\/a> of the New York Liberty with an 85-83 victory, reaching the WNBA finals for the first time since 2013. The 24-year-old scored 18 points before half-time, including a pair of three-pointers, and helped eliminate the 2024 champions<\/a> on their home floor.<\/p>\n

As it happens, Reese had been expecting this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI manifested this when I came to Atlanta. I knew what I was getting. The finals. The finals,\u201d she said afterward. \u201cThis team has poured so much into me. We poured so much into each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exactly 364 days earlier, while watching last season\u2019s championship series from the couch, Reese had posted a prediction<\/a> on social media: \u201cManifesting the finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was watching the finals from home for the last two years and kept saying, just give me one playoff game,\u201d she said. \u201cI manifest a lot of things and think it\u2019s important to speak positively into your life and your team, but this is all God. I\u2019m thankful and blessed to be here and won\u2019t take it for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angel Reese celebrates during Atlanta\u2019s Game 3 victory over New York on Friday night, which sent the Dream into the WNBA finals. Photograph: Mike Lawrence\/NBAE\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The former Chicago Sky forward, who arrived in Atlanta in an offseason trade<\/a>, has found more than a new basketball home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a praying group; eight of our 12 players go to chapel, and we take that seriously,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing to be around the girls in that locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reese\u2019s offensive limitations were always real enough. Her finishing around the basket could be erratic, her shooting needed work and her impatience sometimes got the better of her. But there was an enormous difference between acknowledging those weaknesses and insisting they rendered her accomplishments fraudulent.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s post-game news conference in the bowels of Brooklyn\u2019s Barclays Center offered a revealing glimpse of the work she has put into addressing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s really hard for me to not want to rush success,\u201d Reese admitted.<\/p>\n

She recalled a particularly demanding shooting drill under Dream coach Karl Smesko, who stopped the exercise until Reese made the required shot. Her teammates were left waiting, and her frustration mounted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was upset with him that day, for sure,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause I didn\u2019t want to let the team down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smesko remembered the episode, explaining that Atlanta had undertaken substantial changes to Reese\u2019s offensive game. He warned her that the adjustments would not feel natural immediately, but that the work would begin to pay off as the season progressed.<\/p>\n

For much of her first two professions seasons, Reese seemed destined to become a Dennis Rodman for the modern WNBA: a generational rebounder, an indefatigable competitor and the sort of complementary piece whose singular gifts could turn a good team into a great one. That was hardly a modest projection. Rodman was a Hall of Famer and one of basketball\u2019s most influential role players.<\/p>\n

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But in her third year, Reese is making even that comparison look increasingly restrictive. She\u2019s becoming the sort of player a championship contender can build around.<\/p>\n

Her reflections on Friday extended beyond basketball. Reese spoke movingly about her mother, Angel Webb Reese, who raised her and her brother with help from their grandparents and remains her most dependable source of support.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s really proud because she knows the dark moments that I\u2019ve been through,\u201d Reese said. \u201cI can pick up the phone at three in the morning, call her crying, and she\u2019s just been there for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atlanta\u2019s Rhyne Howard separates teammate Angel Reese and New York\u2019s Sabrina Ionescu during a heated exchange in Friday\u2019s WNBA semi-final Game 3 in Brooklyn. Photograph: Ishika Samant\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Her mother, she explained, asks for little beyond the opportunity to be present.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupport me, show up, and love me, and I\u2019ll give you the world,\u201d Reese said. \u201cShe\u2019s not very hard on me, but she\u2019s very loving, and she\u2019s very caring.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a reminder of the human being behind the online caricature, and of the private difficulties that cannot be captured in a compilation of missed shots.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s victory came without injured second-leading scorer Allisha Gray, whose absence placed additional demands on Reese and Atlanta\u2019s already depleted rotation. Reese said she had promised Gray that she would help finish the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what you brought me here for. I got your back. You got my back,\u201d she recalled telling her. \u201cAnd I\u2019m glad to have her back for the finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atlanta will face the Golden State Valkyries<\/a> in the best-of-seven championship series beginning on 17 October. For Reese, who spent her first two seasons hoping for even a single playoff appearance, the prospect of playing for a WNBA title remains almost surreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I belonged here and wanted to help this team do whatever it took \u2013 not just get out of the first round or semi-finals, but make the finals and win a championship,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe job isn\u2019t done. We\u2019re happy, but not satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot of folks owe Angel Reese an apology after Friday night. They should probably form an orderly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":928857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-928856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}