August 30, 2026
August 30, 2026
Angel Reese’s Defining Second Season
Angel Reese’s 2025 season arrived loaded with expectations. No rookie campaign, however loud, could match what came next. She had already tied a WNBA record for consecutive double-doubles. She had already proven herself one of the league’s most physical rebounders. The question was no longer whether she belonged. It was how far she could drag a Chicago Sky roster still searching for direction. Coach Tyler Marsh, hired the previous November, inherited both her talent and the burden of turning it into wins. By the time the season closed, growth and struggle had become inseparable threads in her story.
Marsh built his first season around Reese as the offensive and defensive centerpiece. That decision made sense. She had already outplayed her draft slot as the No. 7 pick in 2024, and nothing about her game suggested a step back. Chicago’s front office had reshaped the roster around veterans like Courtney Vandersloot, betting that experience paired with Reese’s relentlessness could push the Sky toward contention. That bet never fully paid off. Reese’s own trajectory never wavered anyway, and her 2025 season would ultimately be remembered for individual dominance inside a team still finding its footing.
Night after night, Reese punished defenses on the boards. She seized a league-leading 12.6 rebounds per game to go with 14.7 points, 3.7 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.7 blocks. She shot 45.8 percent from the field and a career-best 75.6 percent from the line. Those numbers reflected a more polished offensive game than her rookie season had shown. They also made her the outright top rebounder in the WNBA, not merely a rookie sensation padding totals against thin competition. The clearest snapshot came June 29, when she poured in a team-high 24 points to beat the Los Angeles Sparks, a reminder that her scoring could carry a game whenever Chicago needed it most.
Everything changed on June 7. Vandersloot tore her ACL against Indiana that night, and Chicago lost its floor general for good. Reese absorbed more defensive attention without a veteran guard to relieve the pressure. The Sky’s supporting cast thinned by the week, and the burden of carrying an offense fell squarely on her shoulders. Her career averages barely dipped anyway, proof of how much of Chicago’s attack simply ran through the post.
Named Eastern Conference Player of the Week on July 1, Reese earned a second consecutive All-Star selection. It confirmed that her production translated beyond a struggling team’s record. Then a leg injury clouded her arrival in Indianapolis, forcing her out of a midweek game against Atlanta. Her All-Star status stayed uncertain into the weekend. She answered the doubts the way she answered most challenges that summer, refusing to let the moment slip away from her.
Frustration boiled over in September. Reese criticized the front office’s roster building in a Chicago Tribune interview, and she questioned Marsh’s approach in the same breath. The comments drew a suspension for the first half of a September 7 game against Las Vegas. She apologized within days, insisting her words had been taken out of context. Her teammates, she said, had battled alongside her all year and deserved better. The episode passed quickly. It still exposed how heavily a 10-34 record weighed on a player who genuinely believed the Sky could contend.
Rather than fade with the standings, Reese elevated her game down the stretch. She averaged 17.7 points on 51.4 percent shooting across her final 15 outings, absorbing an ever-larger share of Chicago’s offense as the season wound down. A back injury finally caught up with her before the finale against New York, ending her availability one game early. It closed out a workload that had rarely let up since May. She still led the league in rebounding after playing through that pain, and that fact said as much about her toughness as any highlight reel could. Reese finished the year having appeared in 30 of Chicago’s 44 games, the absences a direct product of the leg and back issues that shadowed her all summer.
The WNBA recognized Reese’s rebounding with a Peak Performer award in September. It was formal acknowledgment of a number, 12.6 boards a night, that topped every player in the league. She also became just the third player in WNBA history to average a double-double in each of her first two professional seasons. That put her alongside a short list of players whose dominance on the glass translated immediately to the pro game. What does it say about a losing team when its best player still commands that kind of historical company? It says the rebuilding around her was the real story of the year. Chicago finished sixth in the Eastern Conference and missed the postseason, eliminated on August 21. Reese’s individual arc kept climbing anyway, even as the franchise searched for its footing around her. Her 2025 season closed as proof that the rookie breakthrough was no accident. Whatever came next for the Sky, it was clear it would run through her.
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