An Angel Among Us: Angel Reese Is The Once-In-A-Lifetime Basketball Phenom And Superstar We Have All Been Waiting For

There’s nothing sweeter in sports than watching a generational basketball phenom realizing their potential. 

One recent afternoon, I was so excited about Atlanta Dream star Angel Reese and her team’s ascent into the Finals that I was regaling my mama with all the stats and data that sprouted to mind about her, dating back to her historic collegiate championship run. 

This is my first season writing regularly about the WNBA, and my mama patiently humors my unfiltered, often rapid-fire, curse-ridden diatribes after close games and about all the ways Black women players in the league are regularly maligned, attacked, and grossly underestimated. 

I sent her the college clip of Reese blocking a shot while holding her own shoe. My mama said she’d already seen it, and that the first time she watched it she knew Reese was different and special. 

Black women have always known Angel Reese was special. We don’t have to be avid basketball fans to recognize that Reese possesses a rare alchemy where success on and off the court feels inevitable. We know because we see an astoundingly talented young woman who refuses to shrink and has given herself only one option: success. 

To us, Reese’s success has always felt like a divine certainty, buoyed by her very name, Angel, seemingly solidifying an assured trajectory that has landed as a visible truth so natural it feels like breathing in air. 

For many of us, betting on Black is a core commitment, but betting on Angel feels like banking on a sure thing. Her losses never quite feel like losses. When she takes a hit, she learns from it, takes accountability, and emerges better, stronger, smarter, and more determined. Because she transforms every setback into another layer of her inevitable rise, we trust that she will get right back out there and fight for her next win.

After a tough Game 1 Finals loss, Reese did just that and came out with explosive energy in the second game. Facing one of the league’s most disciplined interior defenses, Reese effectively dominated the Valkyries on both ends of the court. She was determined to win.

Her unyielding self-belief and her fierce, competitive spirit is part of Reese’s edge and integral to her brilliance. She relentlessly hunted down boards, altered shots in the paint, and imposed her physical will until she broke the Valkyries’ offensive rhythm. 

In basketball, rebounding is often colloquially reduced to a secondary hustle stat, yet in Reese’s game, her dominance near the basket is impossible to ignore. She shows an extraordinary grasp of what could best be described as spatiotemporal geometry, consistently calculating the ball’s trajectory, velocity, and the angle of its ricochet off the rim before it completes its arc. Anticipating that bounce while physically shielding world-class defenders shows she has a rare combination of height, physical control, and acute spatial awareness that forces teams to change their play. 

Like so many of the best basketball players ever, Reese is a relentless trash-talker who gets under her opponents’ skin. Her verbal sparring connects back to streetball lineage where sharp wit is an art form as vital as the ability to sink a flawless jump shot after losing a defender with a lethal crossover. 

When Reese’s opponents dare a verbal clap back, anything they say becomes a challenge she uses as fuel to punish them, often on the very next possession. While her trash-talking and on-court swagger spark viral memes and populate highlight reels, her core greatness lies in a deep, intellectual, and physical mastery of the game. 

She drilled a crucial, dagger three-pointer with a little over four minutes left in the fourth quarter that effectively silenced the usually raucous Valhalla home crowd. The shot pushed Atlanta’s lead to 19 and all but sealed a Dream victory. Reese capped off the historic night with 30 points and 16 rebounds, making her the youngest player in WNBA history to put up those high totals in a Finals matchup. 

Beyond the box score, Reese’s performance was a masterclass in willpower and commanding excellence. Her multi-dimensional game, anchored by savant-level positioning, spatial IQ, and an insatiable hunger to win, has propelled her into the conversation as a player on track to become one of the greatest of all time, an incredible feat for a player in her third year in the WNBA. 

As a pioneer of the first collegiate generation to navigate Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) regulations, Reese has spent most of her adult life under a microscopic national spotlight that has included juggling the demands of being a star athlete while also building a successful business empire. She has secured multiple major multi-million-dollar corporate partnerships and approached personal branding with a sharp intuition and business acumen that easily puts her on par with veteran corporate executives with Wharton MBAs. 

Along the way, she’s weathered any incoming storm with aplomb and diplomacy. It’s easy to forget when watching her give interviews that Reese has been in the public spotlight for less than five years. 

At just twenty-four, she has a maturity and self-possession that meet the press corps with a steady gaze, calm clarity, and the fluid instincts that reveal her brilliance as a masterful communicator. She effectively navigates intense scrutiny, gracefully sidestepping baiting questions while standing up for herself, taking accountability for growth, and displaying a rare vulnerability that’s hard not to find endearing. Her command of these often high-stakes press interviews reveals a natural but rare poise that most Hollywood A-list actors who have been in the entertainment industry for decades lack even after extensive and ongoing media training.

Her professional poise is balanced out by a playful, kind spirit, revealing a multidimensional persona that very few talented individuals manage to achieve. In her answers to reporters’ questions, she understands her reach and platform and skillfully pays homage to her support system on and off the court. In her first season in Atlanta, she’s already been crowned with a new nickname, Queen of the South.

She praises her teammates on camera with the same devotion she shows them during games. When she won Defensive Player of the Year, she committed to engraving the names of two of her teammates, Jordin Canada and Rhyne Howard, into the trophy to acknowledge their defensive prowess.

She shows a deep reverence for the WNBA legends who came before her, welcoming the love and dedication that veterans like Sheryl Swoopes, Nneka Ogwumike, and Teresa Weatherspoon continue to pour into her. She’s extended deep gratitude to her legions of fans. Recently, she warmly thanked those she called her online “aunties and uncles” for their ongoing support, illustrating her unique gift for acknowledging her multilayered community support and ensuring her fans feel seen, heard, and acknowledged.

During a recent interview, she talked about the unwavering support of her mother, Angel Webb Reese, whom she retired last year and who sits courtside supporting her during games. Reese shared that all she needed from her mother was her love and support, and in return she vowed to give her the world. In that moment, Reese provided a profound moment of raw vulnerability that bared her heart, showing the world that behind the competitive warrior on the court is a daughter driven by a deep, reverent, and protective love. 

This genuine, unguarded love and devotion for her mom is, in some ways, already woven inextricably into the fabric of Reese’s identity and brand. She’s her mother’s namesake, after all, making it hard not to imagine that every win on and off the court is contributing to the storied legacies of not one but two Angels. 

With the bigger picture in mind, it feels sacrilegious not to root for an Angel, let alone a once-in-a-lifetime generational talent and superstar who gives so much of herself to the game and to the world. 

Reese and the Dream are now three wins away from securing their first championship.  Winning this series would give Reese her first WNBA championship and make her the first player up to her number seven pick in her 2024 draft class to win a ring. 

Whether she brings home the ring or not, certain core truths will remain. Angel Reese is an undeniable force and generational talent who is just getting started. Rooted deeply in her community and secure in her own power, Angel Reese has an unstoppable, innate, irresistible star quality that makes her one of one. Angel is her ancestors’ wildest dreams, personified. 

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