The secrets behind Angel Reese’s legendary rebounding
Angel Reese tracks the spinning orange and white stripes of the WNBA ball as quickly because it leaves the shooter’s fingertips. The Atlanta Dream ahead strikes into place on this scorching and humid Atlanta evening in early July. She bends her knees as she nears the basket and prepares to seize the ball because it rolls across the again of the rim. But a hand pushes into her again. Seattle Storm middle Dominique Malonga extends her longer arm over Reese, tapping the ball backward and away from her.
For many gamers, that will have been the tip of it. Malonga would have secured the offensive rebound and Reese would have repositioned defensively to contest the putback. But Reese does not concede rebounds that simply. As Malonga turns to seize the ball she’d tapped to herself, Reese scoops it up, one in every of her 11 rebounds that evening in her fifteenth double-double of the season, a quantity that has since grown to a Dream-record 22.
While Caitlin Clark fills spotlight reveals along with her emblem 3s and Olivia Miles cuts mixtapes along with her flashy passes, Reese amasses rebounds. Part Dennis Rodman’s analytical mind and half Charles Barkley’s persistent power, Reese is doing it at a historic tempo.
She grabbed her 1,000th profession rebound in 79 WNBA video games, 10 quicker than Tina Charles, the league’s all-time chief with 4,262. Reese has a league-high 384 this season and is averaging a league-best 12.0 per sport and 12.6 for her profession. If she retains this tempo over Atlanta’s 11 remaining video games, she would set the WNBA’s single-season document and turn into the league’s first participant to crack 500 rebounds. Her long-term outlook is also historic. With 1,207 profession rebounds (and counting) Reese would want 243 extra video games at her present tempo to interrupt Charles’ document.
How does she do it? She’s tall however not the tallest. She’s fast however not the quickest. She’s bouncy however not the bounciest. Some level to her imaginative and prescient. Some level to her motor. Others level to her thoughts. Some even marvel if there’s one thing simply past human understanding happening. Something nearer to, say, clairvoyance?
Says Reese, sitting on a courtside chair in a quiet second at Atlanta’s Gateway Center Arena: “I just know.”
Angel Reese’s aggressive upbringing
Back within the day, Angel Webb Reese knew just one approach to make it cease. Her daughter, Angel, and her son, Julian, have been taking issues manner too far.
The banging and bickering exterior have been insufferable. The jawing, the driving, the shoving, the shoulder-lowering. Sometimes the back-and-forth obtained so loud between the siblings, simply 13 months aside, that it drew a crowd to the Reese household doorstep.
“It just got to be a little bit too much for my mom,” Julian recalled in December 2023.
Webb Reese was left with no alternative: The former basketball star at UMBC eliminated the ring from their driveway in Randallstown, Maryland.
Her choice might need lowered the quantity within the neighborhood, nevertheless it did not diminish the household’s highly effective predisposition.
In 1991-92, Angel Webb, a 5-foot-11 ahead, averaged 13.2 rebounds per sport, third greatest within the nation, for the Retrievers.
As a senior at Maryland in 2024-25, Julian Reese led the Big Ten in whole offensive rebounds with 107. Last yr, in 13 NBA video games with the Washington Wizards, he averaged 10.5 rebounds per sport, tied for Eleventh-best within the league.
“Obviously,” the 24-year-old Angel Reese says, “he’s a great rebounder as well.”
Big sister can actually take a number of the credit score. But she’s additionally fast — a minimum of right now — to tip her hat to her brother.
“He was very rough with me growing up,” she says. “But it made me tough.”
Part nurture, then. Part nature, too.
“I don’t know how else to say it,” Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon says of Reese previous to their Aug. 3 sport in Atlanta, “but it’s like it’s in her DNA to hit that glass.”
The anatomy of Angel Reese’s rebounding
A scouting report from 10 years in the past, earlier than Angel Reese even began highschool, mentions that she’s a fringe participant who’s “active on glass.” One from the summer time earlier than her sophomore season, in 2017, touts Reese’s fast leaping and wingspan. At the tip of the season, she has sprouted to 6-foot-3, moved to the frontcourt, and he or she “owns the glass on putback points.” Two closing scouting reviews trumpet her aggressive depth.
As a freshman at Saint Frances Academy, Reese confronted her future fellow McDonald’s All American choice, NCAA rival and fellow Chicago Sky first-round draft decide Kamilla Cardoso, on the DICK’S Sporting Goods High School Nationals. Cardoso was a 6-foot-6 star for Hamilton Heights Christian Academy. It was the one sport Reese’s crew misplaced all season, 56-55. Reese despatched that sport into time beyond regulation with a rebound and putback on the buzzer. It was the primary time she noticed rebounding as her superpower.
“I’m not the biggest or the strongest,” says Reese, who now stands 6-4. She chuckles. “I don’t have the highest vert.”
But look nearer. Reese flashes causes for her rebounding proficiency.
Start along with her palms. While there aren’t any official stats, Reese appears to palm the ball greater than some other participant within the WNBA. On rebounds. Prior to retailers. In the publish. It’s nearly as if she has magnets embedded in her palms. She particularly likes to snag a rebound one-handed whereas holding her opponent again along with her reverse forearm.
Move to her ft. The former volleyball participant (Reese reductions the connection: “I think basketball probably helped my volleyball more than volleyball helped my basketball”) is each explosive and nimble.
Elizabeth Williams, Reese’s former teammate with the Sky and a 12-year veteran who has boxed out one of the best of them, says Reese is especially elusive on the courtroom.
“She has a quick first step,” Williams says.
And then take a look at her arms. Reese’s wingspan measures 6-5¾, which solely partially makes up for her underwhelming peak. Of the top-10 rebounders within the league this season, Reese is taller than simply two — Nneka Ogwumike and Kiki Iriafen.
But Reese’s slim body is misleading.
“She’s got underrated strength,” says Sky coach Tyler Marsh, who noticed Reese snag 377 rebounds through the 2025 season.
Combine that power along with her willingness to create house (learn: bump) within the lane (thanks, Julian), and Reese creates extra alternatives for herself.
“She has a very big rebounding radius,” says Karl Smesko, in his second season teaching the Dream. “Some people can rebound any ball that comes within 2 feet of them either way. Angel can probably get 8 to 10 feet either way.”
Does Angel Reese simply need it extra?
Call it motor. Call it drive. Call it need. Whatever the phrase, Reese’s teammates, coaches — nearly everybody who watches her work — level to an inside clarification for her rebounding prowess.
“She just wants the ball,” says teammate Rhyne Howard, who averages 17.8 factors and had a season-high eight-rebound sport in May. “Her tenacity in saying ‘I want the ball,’ and going to get it, nothing is going to keep her from that.”
“There’s a passion for rebounding,” Marsh says. “There’s a drive for rebounding. There’s a will to rebounding. She has all of those things.”
Reese believes that rebounding is the one factor she will management. Her photographs are going to go down or they don’t seem to be. But she’s prepared both manner.
“I literally sometimes sit on the 3-point line and look at Angel and wait for her to get the ball,” Dream ahead Naz Hillmon says with a smirk. “I’m just like ‘Oh, she’s got five people around her and she’s still getting the rebound. I should probably be more helpful.'”
It’s not for everybody. Rebounding is extra grit than glory. There are elbows to take care of, fingernails to keep away from, hip checks to dodge. The lady previously often called the Bayou Barbie could also be glamour off the courtroom, however she thrives within the trenches on the courtroom. On Thursday towards the Connecticut Sun, she set a single-season Dream document with 384. All three of her seasons rank within the high 10 for single-season rebounds in WNBA historical past. Her rookie-season whole of 446 stands second all-time behind A’ja Wilson’s 451.
Maybe Cardoso knew what was coming. On draft evening in 2024, she famously quipped concerning the Sky’s new rookie duo: “Nobody’s gonna get no rebounds on us.”
Reese is aware of her strengths. She sees your no-look go and raises with a tapped rebound over a taller opponent. She has cashed in on her distinctive capacity with three straight All-Star Game appearances.
“As a post player, we all have the ability to rebound, so it’s just who wants it more, especially defensive rebounding,” the 6-6 Malonga says. “If you want all the defensive rebounds, you can have all of them.”
Ask round. Nobody needs them greater than Reese.
“She’s got an incredible motor and that will to go rebound,” says Liberty assistant Courtney Paris, who held the NCAA document for double-doubles till Reese got here alongside. “She’s a dog. She wants to go make plays.”
The ‘mebound’ phenomenon
Reese drives throughout the lane along with her left hand in a sport earlier this month towards the Las Vegas Aces. Aces guard Jewell Loyd sags off her project on the perimeter and reaches towards the ball as Reese arrives on the rim. Brianna Turner stands tall between Reese and the basket. Sandwiched between defenders and her again to the basket, Reese chucks the ball over her head granny-style hoping to attract a foul. The subsequent sound will not be a whistle, however the ball thumping off the backboard, adopted by it clanging off the iron, after which dropping to the ground.
Reese might — perhaps others would — abandon the play. The Dream are down by 22 within the fourth quarter. But as a substitute she whips her head round to seek out the ball. She retreats to virtually the identical spot the drive began and snags the rebound. Or, because it has come to be referred to as, the “mebound,” one in every of 49 she has this season.
One of the criticisms Reese has confronted, largely from web trolls, is that her rebounding proficiency is a product of her taking pictures deficiencies.
“If I miss and I know where it’s going, I’m going to go get it again,” Reese says with a shrug. “Like that’s what everybody should be doing.”
Fact: Reese leads the league in whole second-chance factors this season with 148, which is 30% of her whole 499 factors. According to Elias, second-chance factors account for 26.7% of her profession whole, the best proportion of any lively participant and ninth all time.
Fact: Many of her second-chance factors come off her personal misses. Because, nicely, she misses fairly a bit. According to GeniusIQ, her 46.0% taking pictures proportion contained in the paint ranks final among the many 27 gamers who’ve tried a minimum of 175 photographs within the paint this season.
Fact: Her 49 “mebounds” this season are 25 greater than the next-highest participant, in response to GeniusIQ.
Fact: Social media cannot get sufficient. Videos of her miss-rebound-make and even her miss-rebound-miss-rebound-make sequences are aplenty. Sometimes trolls use them as proof to assist their declare that the NCAA champion and three-time WNBA All-Star is the worst basketball participant ever to play basketball. Others go as far as to accuse her of stat-padding.
Instead of shrinking from the criticism, Reese trademarked “mebounds.”
Like everybody else, she noticed the memes and heard the critics. But she says she did not allow them to get to her. As Sky minority proprietor Dwyane Wade as soon as mentioned on her podcast, “Real hoopers know.”
“I know how important offensive rebounding is,” she says. “It has led to a lot of great things for my teammates. When you get that offensive rebound and you kick it out for a 3, it feels good.”
She pauses.
“That’s a rebound, and an assist.”
Doing the maths
But again to that clairvoyance factor. Reese’s largest asset could also be her mind. Sure, she’s robust and fast and powerful and he or she has a motor. But she additionally appears to have uncanny timing and an otherworldly capacity to know the place the ball goes. And the shortest approach to get there.
“I wouldn’t call it anticipation,” Smesko says, “because she’s putting herself ahead of the game.”
A crystal ball?
Nah. Reese has a extra mundane clarification than extrasensory notion or a contraption that enables her to see the longer term. She says she pays shut consideration to her teammates’ tendencies, and he or she performs the chances. She is aware of when — and the place — her teammates are prone to shoot the ball, and when — and the place — a missed shot is likely to be there for the taking.
An actual-life, real-time utility for geometry. And physics.
Take Allisha Gray, the Dream’s high scorer, for instance.
“Lish is a left-handed shooter,” Reese says. Her eyes gentle up speaking about it. “Most of the time, if she does miss, it’s probably going to bounce off on that other side.”
Guess who’s ready?
“She starts creating her advantage early,” Marsh says, “and it puts opposing players in a bind.”
And it is not that Gray is getting particular therapy. When Reese appears up at a shot, any shot, she’s analyzing how briskly it is spinning, its trajectory towards the ring, the place it is prone to bounce off the rim if it is a miss. She is aware of what photographs are going lengthy. She is aware of if she will catch somebody sleeping. She processes this data so shortly, that it appears like a sixth sense.
“She has this innate ability to track the ball,” says Marsh, who obtained a refresher course in Chicago in June.
Sky guard Gabriela Jaquez dribbles off a Cardoso ball display screen and accelerates from the left wing throughout Reese’s first regular-season sport towards her former crew. With her defender a step behind, Jaquez has a path to the bucket. She releases a child hook along with her proper hand, and Reese retains her eyes on the ball as she drifts towards the rim. Cardoso jogs down the lane behind her. Reese vegetation her ft and prepares to leap when the ball strikes the proper facet of the rim, nevertheless it does not bounce off as anticipated. Instead it rolls across the again and falls off the left facet. Reese, who offers up 3 inches to the 6-7 Cardoso, has — gasp — miscalculated. She jumps for the board, however Cardoso reaches over Reese’s head. Reese’s momentum carries her towards the baseline, away from the ball. Reese adjusts to the ball’s new trajectory and to Cardoso’s extending arms. She turns to her left and makes use of each palms to faucet the ball away from Cardoso.
That’s one other on her approach to No. 17 for the evening, tied for her season excessive. As a rookie with Chicago in 2024, she had a career-high 22 in a sport towards Hammon’s Aces. Back in faculty with LSU, she had a team-record 28 towards Texas A&M. She completed highschool at Saint Frances with 1,250.
With Cardoso empty-handed, Reese turns and dribbles the ball up the courtroom. Another shot will come. It may go in. It won’t. Either manner, Reese might be prepared.
“You have to want to rebound,” Reese says. “If I want to be one of the best rebounders ever, I have to consistently do it on a daily basis. Not a lot of people take into account how much effort you have to put in for that.”
ESPN Research contributed to this story.