Recently, Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky joined other WNBA All-Stars in making a public show of demanding more money.
Then, in her team’s first game back from the All-Star Break, Reese made a show of comically inept ball handling.
On Tuesday, the league-leading Minnesota Lynx (a virtual playoff lock) defeated the woeful Sky (a team that probably won’t sniff the playoffs) by a score of 91-68, a game in which Reese extended a largely meaningless personal statistics streak while coughing up an embarrassing nine turnovers.
During the game, Reese posted her 10th consecutive double-double. Per CBS Sports, that made her the first player in league history to accomplish that feat twice in her career.
Moreover, at only 23 and in her second professional season, Reese has plenty of time to do it again.
Of course, the young Sky All-Star has also made a name for herself in ways that go beyond on-court performance.
Since their college days, Reese has cultivated an image as the nemesis of Indiana Fever superstar guard Caitlin Clark, widely regarded as the face of the WNBA. Because Reese is black and Clark is white, commentators in the sports world and beyond have used their rivalry as a proxy with which to wage various culture wars. Meanwhile, other WNBA players have fed that narrative through their obvious jealousy of Clark.
Whatever others might have done to exacerbate things, however, Reese remains a problem in her own right.
In short, she comes across as woke, entitled, and even lazy in a very specific way.
Do you think WNBA players should make more money?
For instance, in comments to reporters at the WNBA All-Star Game over the weekend, Reese characterized the league’s latest collective bargaining proposal as “disrespectful,” per Fox News.
That’s fine; Reese is hardly the first professional athlete to complain about a contract with owners. According to ESPN, in fact, her fellow All-Stars donned black t-shirts that read “Pay Us What You Owe Us.”
To prove that she deserves more money, however, Reese then went out and committed nine turnovers in one game.
Non-basketball fans should understand what makes that unusual and even reprehensible.
First, Reese plays forward, not guard, which means that she generally has fewer opportunities to handle the ball.
Nonetheless, the following clips, posted to the social media platform X, showed the kinds of careless turnovers she committed.
Angel Reese with the ‘no-look-behind-the-back’ turnover. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/MFx9U2OL8h
— Ratioed Sports (@RatioedSports) July 23, 2025
Angel Reese’s footwork is INSANE pic.twitter.com/NaYeuXjKrg
— Hater Report (@HaterReport_) July 23, 2025
Second, Tuesday hardly qualified as an anomaly. In fact, through 22 games Reese leads the entire league in turnovers per game by a wide margin.
For context, of the five players committing the most turnovers, Reese has the fewest assists per game. Those two statistics tend to measure volume of ball handling — how often a player has the ball in her hands.
In short, Reese handles the ball less often than others but gives it away more often than anyone.
As a general rule, one cannot attribute laziness to a player who leads a league in rebounds, as Reese does. There is, however, a certain kind of laziness that comes from sulking. See, for instance, the following clip of Reese carelessly inbounding the ball in a game earlier this season.
This pass by Angel Reese 👀🔥 pic.twitter.com/6pa8usMJov
— BricksCenter (@BricksCenter) July 15, 2025
In sum, Reese wants to receive fair compensation. So does everyone. But, given her propensity to commit lazy, sulking-induced turnovers, and in light of her team’s abysmal record, what is her on-court performance really worth?
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