SAN FRANCISCO — The thing that I’ve always found spookiest about former Sky star Angel Reese is the way she speaks things into existence.
She’d put pretty much every accomplishment this year — from making the FIBA World Cup team to being named Defensive Player of the Year to reaching her first WNBA Finals — out into the universe well beforehand.
She calls it manifesting.
I remember being caught off guard by her manifesting last season, when she casually dropped in a pregame interview that she was planning on becoming Defensive Player of the Year. I’d always thought of her as a good, instinctive defender, but she, at 23 years old, thought she could dethrone the likes of A’ja Wilson and Napheesa Collier?
She could and she did. Impressive stuff.
But what I most enjoyed about covering Reese, in the two years before the Sky traded her to the Dream, was the way she made you think. My questions about her ranged from the little mysteries to the big ones.
Little: Why could she outjump anybody for a rebound, but when she shot a layup, seemed to dive toward the rim and windshield-wiper the ball up?
Big: What made her work so ravenously toward her goals? Would she ever view life as something other than a set of stages to be conquered? Would she look back the way she looks forward?
I asked her about this Friday, on the eve of Game 1 in San Francisco, reminding her that as a rookie, she once told us that she didn’t really ever have time to reflect. Now that she was in a slightly different moment in her life, had that changed? Her answer was basically no.
“I think my journey speaks for itself,” she said. “A year ago I was walking in [the Victoria's Secret fashion show] for the first time ever. Now a year later I’m on the biggest stage and being able to be in the Finals.
“I haven’t had time to really reflect yet. Maybe the offseason is time, but I always have something going on in the off season, so it’s really hard.
“But I think like: I work hard now in my 20s, my early 30s so I can rest and relax and have a family and do all the other fun things when I’m older.”
Fair enough: she can leave the reflecting to the writers and the old folk while she marches on.
I still think about Reese’s time in Chicago often. I can picture waking up to the subject heading in my inbox on that fateful Monday in April: “Chicago Sky Trade Angel Reese to the Atlanta Dream, Acquire Draft Picks.”
I groaned. It was just like the Sky to recognize her potential while others doubted her, trade valuable draft capital to get her, and then fail to make it work long-term.
I knew Reese’s short tenure was a huge opportunity blown for the franchise, and that her departure would hurt fans. Personally, though, I was ambivalent. I’d miss her booming presence, but I was glad to be done with the mess of haters and rabid defenders around her. With the Sky in such a steep decline, I wasn’t sure any one player could turn things around.
When I sat down to write, the first thing that came to mind was the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. The protagonist, Jack, is sent by his family to sell their cow, but to their dismay, Jack returns with a bag of magic beans.
The Sky traded forward Angel Reese to the Dream on Monday for a bag of magic beans, I wrote. That may have captured how fans felt in the moment, but it wasn’t totally accurate — in the English fairy tale, the beans actually end up saving Jack’s family. In this story, they won’t. The only immediate return the Sky will get from the Dream this offseason is the No. 12 pick in the 2027 draft. The last time the Sky drafted that late in the first round, they ended up with the not-exactly-franchise-changing services of Hailey Van Lith.
The best hope for the Sky is that the “beans” grow into a lesson: if you trade up to draft an alpha star like Reese, you need a robust plan to see it through.
What Reese has taught me is that great players change your understanding of what, exactly, greatness looks like. I thought her layup form might limit her, but I was wrong. She’s now anchoring a Finals team, averaging 18 points and 8 rebounds in the playoffs. She’s doing it with her motor, IQ and, surprisingly, more confidence from three.
A good reminder to weigh a player’s mindset and desire just as heavily as their form.
