Angel Reese Attempted to Recruit Top Team France Player, Was Shut Down

Rookie Chicago Sky power forward Angel Reese is already making quite an impression during her debut WNBA season. This year, she broke former Sky champ Candace Parker’s prior record of most consecutive double-doubles, with 15.

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Across 24 games for the 10-14 Sky, the 22-year-old Reese is currently averaging 13.5 points on 40.2 percent shooting from the field and 76 percent from the foul line, 11.9 rebounds, 1.8 dimes, and 1.4 steals a night.

The LSU product’s 11.9 boards a night are second only behind the 12.0 rebounds per All-WNBA Las Vegas Aces superstar center A’ja Wilson, a two-time MVP. Wilson’s 27.2 points a game also leads the league. Reese’s 1.4 steals a night rank 14th in the WNBA.

Angel Reese 2024 All-Star Game
Angel Reese #5 of Team WNBA reacts after scoring during the first quarter of the 2024 WNBA All Star Game at Footprint Center on July 20, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. Reese tried to recruit an… More ALEX SLITZ/GETTY IMAGES
Reese and fellow rookie (and two-time NCAA postseason nemesis) Caitlin Clark, a 6-foot point guard for the Indiana Fever, became the first pair of rookies to make an All-Star team in tandem since the 2014 season.

The Sky currently occupy the WNBA’s eighth and final playoff seed, mere percentage points behind Clark’s 11-15 Fever.

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Now, it appears Reese is doing whatever she can to add some critical depth to Chicago’s roster as the Theresa Weatherspoon-coached club makes a concerted playoff push.

As Jenna Lemoncelli of The New York Post relays, Reese made a bid to recruit a former Sky forward for the stretch run.

5-foot-11 Fenerbahçe S.K. vet Gabby Williams, who served on the Sky from 2018-21 and the Seattle Storm from 2022-23, barely missed out on stealing a gold medal from the Team USA women’s basketball program at this summer’s 2024 Paris Olympics. A back-and-forth affair, the matchup ultimately turned on a Williams buzzer-beater. She attempted to tie the matchup with a banked jumper, but the 27-year-old stepped on the 3-point line, and the shot was ultimately ruled a two. Williams’ Team France fell, 67-60. Team USA won its eighth straight gold at the event.

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Williams finished with a team-high 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the floor (3-of-6 from long range) and 2-of-2 shooting from the charity stripe, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Reese took to her official X account in an effort to recruit Williams back to the Sky and the WNBA at large.

No no

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“Ok now that the game is over, would you like to be apart of the Chicago Sky again??? @gabbywilliams15 (thought it wouldn’t hurt to try lmaoo).”

Williams, however, rejected the pitch outright, writing “orrrrrr we could just play together for a différent organization,” on her own X account, adding, “They did me dirty girl but i am still you’re biggest fan” in a separate post.

Across 135 career games (80 starts), Williams boasts averages of 7.1 points on 42.3 percent shooting from the field and 75.1 percent foul shooting, 3.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.3 steals a night. She was named to the WNBA’s All-Defensive Second Team during her inaugural season with the Storm, in 2022. She also finished fifth in Most Improved Player voting.