Six games into the WNBA season, Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese is sitting outside the top 40 in scoring (10 points per game), but she leads the league with 12.3 rebounds per game.

The reviews have been mixed on Reese’s performances this season—she’s scored in double figures in four of six games but hasn’t score more than 14 points in any outing—and the Sky are just 2-4 and only a game-and-a-half out of being in last place.

Reese has also become the target of lots of criticism from fans on social media.

Ranking third in layup attempts (54), Reese has

the worst layup percentage

(31.5%) of any other player ranked in the top 10.

Of her 61 field-goal attempts this season just nine have been beyond five feet from the rim, and she has a shooting percentage of just 33 from inside five feet, where most of her rebounds have come.

Her 5.7 rebounds per game from within five feet is significantly more than the next-closest player (Brionna Jones, 3.4), prompting fans to come up with a hilarious new statistical category specifically for the purposes of trolling Reese: “mebounds.”


And while Reese continues to take criticism at seemingly every turn, she did have one prominent former NBA star recently come to her defense — four-time NBA champion and Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal.

“When you’re in this [sport] of ours, you have a play a certain way and you have to be a certain way,”

O’Neal recently told

Sports Illustrated. “A lot of times, if they don’t understand who you are, they misconceive. But I tell her all the time don’t worry about that. She’s as good and even better than some of the people that y’all are kissing up to.

“But y’all don’t know it. But she knows it, and in order to be great, you have to know you’re great. She just needs to continue to … play her game, better her game, and don’t worry about the nonsense. I tell her all the time don’t be looking at those comments because they don’t really have a voice, they just think they do.”

Despite all of the social media hate Reese has received this season, she has had a few memorable moments.

During a 94-89 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on May 27, Reese became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 500 career points and 500 career rebounds.

She’s also tied for the third-most double-double in the league (three), and she’s improved in both assists (1.9 to 2.7) and steals (1.3 to 1.8) per game.



Related: Angel Reese Called Out After Fans Put Asterisk on Her Latest WNBA Record