Angel Reese’s Game Is Too Weird Not To Appreciate

Social media is a terrible place to learn about anything, but there is perhaps no phrase more ill-suited for the Twitter or YouTube search bar than “Angel Reese.” The reasons for this are obvious and not worth getting into here—there are a bunch of racist losers on there who have made Reese a target in their increasingly toxic culture war—but even under better circumstances Reese’s game would be a tough fit for 15-second, vertical video highlights. This is a player whose unique, maddening, and persistently effective style was built for a pre-internet age, in which her bewildering box scores could be spoken about in properly mythic tones.

We don’t live in that age, though. We live in one in which Reese’s performances are regularly reduced to short, derisive clips showing her smoking wide-open layups and missed shots following her own offensive rebounds. Today is no different: Following the Fever’s 95-91 win over the Dream on Sunday, the internet is awash in clips of Reese bricking a fast-break layup and missing a put-back that would have won the game in regulation.

Such lowlights are typical of someone who is shooting 41 percent from the field, but they in fact only serve to make her an even more fascinating figure within the league. For example, Reese shot 5-of-16 from the floor in Sunday’s game, but finished with 15 points, 14 rebounds (five on the offensive glass) and six assists in 38 minutes and was a +1 for the game. Reese’s misses are too loud and too common, but what intrigues is how often she is able to shoot as poorly as she did on Sunday and still be a positive force for the Dream.