Over her first three seasons in the WNBA, Angel Reese has emerged as one of the biggest stars in the league. But unlike her longtime rival, Caitlin Clark, she hasn’t emerged as a superstar for her scoring, but rather for her rebounding.
Through three seasons, Reese has already established herself as one of the most dominant rebounders in WNBA history. Now, in a lengthy profile focusing on her rebounding prowess, ESPN has gone as far as to compare her to some of the most tenacious rebounders in NBA history: Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman.
Reese’s Historic Pace
While Reese does often struggle to score efficiently and turns the ball over far more than most post players, there is no question about her rebounding prowess. In fact, Reese is well on pace to be the greatest rebounder in WNBA history, as Katie Barnes of ESPN points out.
“She grabbed her 1,000th career rebound in 79 WNBA games, 10 faster than Tina Charles, the league’s all-time leader with 4,262. Reese has a league-high 384 this season and is averaging a league-best 12.0 per game and 12.6 for her career. If she keeps this pace over Atlanta’s 11 remaining games, she would set the WNBA’s single-season record and become the league’s first player to crack 500 rebounds. Her long-term outlook also is historic. With 1,207 career rebounds (and counting) Reese would need 243 more games at her current pace to break Charles’ record,” Barnes wrote for ESPN this week.
Reese is the only player in WNBA history to average at least 12.0 rebounds per game in a season, doing it in both 2024 and 2025 – her first two seasons in the league. She also led the league in double-doubles last season with 23. This season, Reese already has 23 double-doubles, which is an Atlanta Dream record.
Charles Barkley, Dennis Rodman Comparisons
As a result of her dominance on the boards, Barnes compared Reese’s dominance to NBA legends Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman.
“While Caitlin Clark fills highlight shows with her logo 3s and Olivia Miles cuts mixtapes with her flashy passes, Reese amasses rebounds. Part Dennis Rodman’s analytical brain and part Charles Barkley’s persistent strength, Reese is doing it at a historic pace,” Barnes wrote for ESPN this week.
Whether you agree with the comparisons or not, Reese has been undeniably dominant on the boards throughout the first three seasons of her career, and it doesn’t look like she is going to be slowing down anytime soon.
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