Angel Reese has been whiner number one ever since joining the WNBA in the same year as Caitlin Clark and was immediately overshadowed by CC's significantly higher levels of ability, appeal to fans, and apparently ability to act in a civil manner.
When it started to be taboo for Angel to continue to attack Caitlin she started taking out her frustration on everyone else, including her own teammates and the team ownership and management.
This didn't sit well with the team and she was suspended and then later benched with a supposed "back injury." During all of this she was attempting to launch a podcast and other money-making things for herself and basically took every opportunity to bash anyone and everyone in the WNBA at every opportunity. She was very active on social media and constantly complaining about how her salary couldn't pay her Chicago rent even though she failed to recognize the irony in someone playing a mostly low-paying sport attempting to live in a rental that costs $7,000 a month.
Chicago was able to reign her in and shut her up but I believe the damage was already well and truly done and therefore in the off-season when they traded her to Atlanta I don't think anyone was really surprised.
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talking down to your head coach after fouling out of a game like an angry toddler... always a good idea
I didn't follow this very angry young woman when she was in college, but her methods of intimidation apparently worked on most people back then except towards the one person that she desperately needed it to work on and the girl who was deservedly taking the spotlight: Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever.
The taunting, intentional fouling, and screaming like a banshee on the court is not a new thing for Angel Reese, it is her norm. And while I can only speculate, this, combined with a general lack of performance on Angel's part, lead the Chicago Sky to trade their most infamous player for nobody. That's right, Chicago will not receive any players directly for this trade, but instead will receive Atlanta's first round draft picks in 2027 and 2028.
I find this very funny and kind of poetic justice that someone who kept pushing and pushing about how she is instrumental to the league ends up basically getting released by a team that is absolutely terrible. Angel was able to do only one thing very effectively and that was rebound. However, even these stats are a bit dubious because she rebounded so many of her own missed shots that a new term called "mebounds" was invented just for Angel.
I suppose rebounding your own terrible shot is better than just bricking and walking away but it is kind of embarrassing to watch when someone who is as tall as Angel is continually misses really easy shots just a few feet from the hoop. She is kept on the radar only by her perceived rivalry with Caitlin Clark but anyone who watches the sport can quickly realize that CC doesn't really pay a great deal of attention to Angel and just like when Eminem stops having "beef" with some other rapper and instead just chooses to ignore them, once Caitlin stops acknowledging Angel, she will likely simply fade away.
This is an chance for Angel Reese though and even though I think she has a terrible victim-mentality her move to Atlanta is a good opportunity for her to start fresh. She will be moving to play in the WNBA's smallest arena though and that has to be at least a little bit humbling.
If Atlanta is smart they will be hard on her right from the start though because if Angel has proven one thing in her 2 years in the WNBA and that is that she is not easy to work with. Good luck Atlanta, you are going to need it!