“Angel Reese is somebody I know that she [Teresa Weatherspoon (former Chicago Sky Coach)] really wanted, and to be able to get her at the seventh pick, that’s a huge win. And she fits Chicago.” After the WNBA draft, Dwyane Wade was impressed by the team’s ability to draft Angel Reese. The Chicago Sky minority owner has supported the 23-year-old star time and time again. He even extended some major tips for the Chi-Town Barbie to work upon. And it seems he is back again, this time helping the team after the game 1 show.
The new season for the Windy City kicked off with an old rivalry. Yes, college rivals Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese once again took the center stage, and the world watched in. The Fever-Sky game drew a record 2.7 million average viewers and peaked at 3.1 million viewers as the most-watched WNBA regular season game in 25 years. It was Clark and her team who came out on top with a dominating 35-point blowout win (93-58) on Saturday.
It’s time to regroup for Sky and the new head coach, Tyler Marsh. They will be back in action until Thursday for their second game of the WNBA season, where they’ll face the defending champion New York Liberty. So, as another mammoth task awaited, Dwyane Wade felt it was the right time to make his presence known. The team took to social media and added, “hey friennnnnd ” as D-Wade was in the practice facility. Despite the loss, there were positives for his team.
Angel Reese continued her double-double trend with 12 points and 17 rebounds and set a record in the process. She became the fastest player in league history to record 450+ points and 450+ rebounds. Yet the conversation from that night quickly steered away from basketball. The WNBA said it was investigating reports of alleged racial abuse directed towards the second-year forward during Chicago’s loss.
To which the former LSU grad responded, thanking for the support during media availability on Tuesday. “Obviously there’s no place in this league for that. I think the WNBA and our team and our organization has done a great job supporting me.” The new season started with the old rivalry, but it was not what everyone expected.
Angel Reese seems to have taken Dwyane Wade’s advice to heart
On the 3rd October episode of ‘Unapologetically Angel’, the 3x NBA champion joined “Chi-Town Barbie” to discuss a few topics surrounding the WNBA. The Chicago Sky star did not hesitate and asked for some advice to grow her game. This jump to the WNBA was straight after their NCAA season, so there was not much time for her to develop new skills. That’s why Wade had one point: Recognizing your skills and building on them.
“Now extend your game. You know you hit some threes this year, you know what I mean. You have it. So now it’s about working on it. Being consistent with it. You got to go out there to the game, you got to trust it. Don’t go to the gym and work on something you don’t trust,” Wade adds. Shooting from beyond the arc has been an Achilles’ heel for Reese. In her college career, she never managed to score more than 20% from 3-point shooting in any of her 4 seasons.
The rookie season in the W also produced just 18.8% 3P%. But the debut game this season was different. The 6-3 forward managed 50% shooting in her first game. Yes, the sample size is small, but the context matters. Last season, she managed only 16 total shots in 3s. This season, she has started with 2 per game. So, as the outside noise continues, Reese continues to listen to people who truly matter.
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