Kim Mulkey kept her arm around Angel Reese’s waist with a tight grip on her side. As the LSU women’s basketball looked up at her former star player, her face crinkled between a wide smile and the kind of pout that comes when you’re trying not to cry.
“Let’s go! Two more! Two more!” Reese yelled as Mulkey beamed.
Moments before that heartfelt hug, Reese had put the Atlanta Dream up 2-1 in the WNBA Finals with a 97-71 win over the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at State Farm Arena. The franchise is two wins away from their first championship.
Reese had 21 points, 12 rebounds and three steals to lead the Dream for her third straight double-double in the Finals. She’s the youngest player to accomplish such a feat.
Reese manifested this
reality. Mulkey had already seen Reese do something similar for LSU in 2024, when she led the program to an NCAA title and was named as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
Reese’s success doesn’t come as a surprise to either of them, but likely does for the suddenly quiet crowd of Reese detractors who criticized and mocked her before and after she was taken with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 draft.
It’s hard to think of another athlete who has silenced their doubters as effectively as Reese.
Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Lionel Messi, LeBron James and Serena Williams all weaponized criticism to do what some said they couldn’t. All-time greats, who faced moments in their careers where critics declared them too small, too old, or incapable of winning on the biggest stage. The criticism was holistic for Reeese, who has seemed to catch flack for every facet of her existence over the last few years.
Now, the only outside noise Reese is being asked about is what it means to be an Atlanta sports legend.
“I’ve only been here six months, so I don’t know how y’all can give me that yet,” Reese said in her postgame news conference. “My goal was to come to Atlanta and win a championship. And I think you become one of the greats and you come one of the best when you can win and impact winning. And that's all I wanted to do coming here.
"Everything else really doesn't matter to me.”
Reese might not care about her haters, but she’s certainly proving them wrong.
Haters on her play
Critics watching social media lowlights instead of actual games often attempted to boil Reese’s game down to rebounding her own missed shots – a means to detract from her historic prowess on the boards.
Her rebounding accolades in the WNBA’s record books include the single-game record, single-season record and highest career rebounding average.
Reese embraced the joke about her “Mebounds,” trademarked the term, launched a six-figure merchandise line, and released a pink "Mebounds" colorway for her debut Reebok Angel Reese 1 signature sneaker.
But some of that rhetoric about her game still trickled down to one of Reese’s personal inspirations.
In July 2025, WNBA legend Candace Parker sorted 10 WNBA players into tiers for a social media segment. Reese was in her second season with the Chicago Sky at the time.
Parker put A'ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart in the top tier. Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Plum, and Sabrina Ionescu went in the A tier. Arike Ogunbowale and Paige Bueckers made the B tier, and Parker put Reese in the C tier with Cameron Brink.
"I put her right at that C level," Parker said in the segment. "I think Angel Reese is fantastic at her role, which is offensive rebounding."
Parker later defended the decision, asking which of the nine other players on the list anyone would take Reese over.
After Reese won Defensive Player of the Year, Parker revisited her take. "I was wrong," Parker said. "They're in the Final. She's Defensive Player of the Year. There's no hate. I am just giving my opinion. So congratulations to Angel Reese and the Dream for making the Finals.”
Parker doesn’t believe she’s the only one who would double back if they could.
“Angel Reese has been dominant … The tremendous growth that she's made and the impact," Parker said. "I'm sure there are a lot of teams in the WNBA draft that wish they could redraft."
Reese averaged 14.1 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 2.7 assists during her two seasons with the Sky and was traded to the Dream in April.
Her success with the Dream hasn’t come by happenstance. Reese's shot has improved because of the humility she's shown in trusting Dream coach Karl Smesko. The coach made her shoot 3-pointers in front of her teammates during practices, making three in a row, so that she would feel comfortable taking them in games.
Reese made two 3-pointers in Wednesday’s Game 3. The Dreams is undefeated at 15-0 this season when she makes at least one in a game.
Haters on her attitude, impact
Outside of her skills, Reese has been subjected to criticisms about her attitude and assertion that she’s helped grow the game. Those criticisms are also aging poorly.
In 2024, Reese was met with pushback after she spoke to reporters about her impact since she and LSU won the title over Iowa and Caitlin Clark. Her taunting and celebrations in the aftermath of that win led to relentless online abuse, including prominent social media personality Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy calling Reese a “classless piece of (expletive).”
"People are talking about women's basketball that you'd never would think would be talking about women's basketball. People are pulling up to games. We've got celebrities coming to games [and] sold-out arenas just because of one single game," Reese said.
"And 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, and I know I'll go down in history. I'll look back in 20 years and be like: 'Yeah, the reason why we're watching women's basketball is not just because of one person, it's because of me too, and I want you to realize that.' Like, it's just not ‘cause of one person. A lot of us have done so much for this game."
The numbers support Reese’s reminder that she’s a viewership draw, as the Valkyries Game 1 Finals win over the Dream became the most-watched WNBA Finals Game 1 ever, averaging 2.1 million viewers and peaking at 3 million.
And that “bad guy” persona Reese embraced is powering her team as well. From talking trash to Valkyries reserve center Aminata Gueye to yelling expletives in transition as she calls for the ball, Reese’s teammates have emphasized that they feed off her energy.
And looking at the Valkyries’ dejected bench throughout the blowout that was Game 3, it’s felt by both teams on the league’s biggest stage.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Angel Reese was mocked, doubted and hated. Now she’s dominating the Finals
