Chicago Sky Angel Reese finishes historic rookie season as league leader in rebounding average

CHICAGO – In a historic season around the WNBA, the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese punctuated the end of the regular season as one of the league’s statistical leaders.

With the WNBA’s regular season coming to a close on Thursday, Reese finished the regular season as the league’s leader in rebounds per game.

Reese finished her rookie season averaging 13.1 rebounds per game. Behind Reese was Las Vegas Aces center, and the most likely pick for WNBA MVP, A’ja Wilson who averaged 11.9 rebounds per game.

Both Reese and Wilson were the only two WNBA players to average double-figure rebounding numbers this season.

This was still a record-setting season for Reese and she helped turn one of the most-anticipated seasons in WNBA history into the most-viewed WNBA season of all time.

Reese did this by setting records.

Reese posted the highest season rebounding average in league history. She also set a WNBA record for consecutive double-doubles with 15 consecutive games and set the WNBA record for most rebounds in a single season before Wilson broke that record shortly after.

The No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft scored in double figures in 30 out of 34 games.

Reese did all of this before a wrist injury ended her rookie year on Sept. 7.

Off the court, Reese has become a Chicago icon to add to her women’s basketball icon status.

Reese was on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s Power List, highlighting the 50 most influential figures in all of sports, and was also announced that she would be on the box of Reese’s Puffs breakfast cereal, coinciding with her fan base’s name “Reese’s Pieces.”

While the Sky are not in the playoffs this year for the first time since 2018, losing on the final day of the regular season without Reese, Chennedy Carter or Kamilla Cardoso, it’s clear the franchise’s future revolves around Reese.

As the face of the Sky, it hasn’t been an easy season. Reese faced criticism and backlash for her style of play, oftentimes in comparison to fellow rookie and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark in a rivalry manufactured by pundits from their college days.

However, at the end of Reese’s historic rookie season, where she set multiple WNBA records and ushered in the highest-attended Sky season in franchise history, her words from a post-practice press conference on June 3 ring true.

“People are talking about women’s basketball, you never would think they’d be talking about women’s basketball,” Reese said. “People are pulling up to games. We got celebrities coming to games and sold-out arenas just because of one single game. Just looking at that, I’ll take that role. I’ll take the bad guy role, and I’ll continue to take that on and be that for my teammates. I know I’ll go down in history. I’ll look back in 20 years and be like, the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me, too. I want y’all to realize that.”