Dwyane Wade has stepped up big as a minority owner of the Chicago Sky. After a couple of sub-par seasons for the Windy City team, they now seem to be in a much better position with a young core ready to contend for the championship for years to come. While getting the 2024 Draft class’ cream of the crop, Caitlin Clark, was nearly impossible once the lottery was announced in December, Chicago set its sights on the best bigs on the draft board to complement the guards on the roster. Enter NCAA champions: Kamila Cardoso and Angel Reese. A “huge win” for Wade, what’s there to love about this?

The Sky selected the Brazilian superstar Cardoso as the 3rd overall pick in the 2024 draft. However, they feared Angel Reese might get drafted by the other teams behind them, so they traded up on Draft Day to get the 7th pick instead of the 8th. Wade shared on his Wine Down podcast, “We couldn’t get Caitlin Clark, we knew that. I think we all knew we wasn’t going to get Cameron Brink. LA was going to grab her with the second pick. She’s from California as well. I wanted to look at films on Kamila Cardoso and Angel Reese. “

The Miami Heat icon added, “Angel Reese is somebody I know that she [Teresa Weatherspoon (Chicago Sky Coach)] really wanted, and to be able to get her at the seventh pick, that’s a huge win. And she fits Chicago.” Apart from the No.1 Draft pick, Caitlin Clark, Reese was arguably the most famous name on the board.

Reese has 3 million followers on Instagram, more than most established WNBA players. Similar to Cardoso, Reese is a National Champion and has been a part of winning basketball for a long time. She has the mental and physical capacity to thrive in a city like Chicago. And the same goes for Cardoso. Furthermore, also Wade believes Reese has a locker room trick which will help her in Chicago.  

“You don’t mess with Angel Reese, ’cause she about that life. Like, ‘Let’s go.’ You know what I mean? All that cute stuff in the locker room, I’m out here to get dirty. You love that, and that’s what Chicago loves,“ said Wade. While the rookies seem determined to take Chicago to the promised land, Reese and Cardoso were big rivals during their time in college and had a few skirmishes as well. However, coach Weatherspoon is planning to change the tension between them into a partnership. 

Teresa Weatherspoon’s plan for Angel Reese and Kamila Cardoso 

Reese and Cardoso have been playing against each other since high school. Interestingly, in the SEC Championship game in March between Cardoso’s South Carolina Gamecocks and Reese’s LSU Tigers, there was a bench-clearing altercation that led to 10 (!!) ejections, including the Brazilian. While Reese avoided this skirmish, she made sure to point out the fact that her team wasn’t scared of the Gamecocks. This all happened after both Reese and Cardoso went at each other throughout the night, talking trash. That intensity will surely help them make fans in Chicago, though.

After both of them were drafted for the same WNBA team, Reese said, “I’m just so excited I get to play with Kamilla.“ Cardoso was also on the same page, who shared, “Two great players together, nobody’s going to get no rebounds on us.“ While Cardoso averaged 9.7 rebounds a game last year, Reese averaged 13.4, the second-best in the country. And Chicago Sky head coach Teresa Weatherspoon is planning to take full advantage of it.

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“They come in with a tremendous amount of belief in themselves, knowing what they can do. But also, they understand the little things they must be better at. When you have that, you know that they will buy into becoming better than what they are now,“ she said about Reese and Cardoso. The chemistry between the two rookies has already started. We witnessed a few moments that the two shared during the preseason. Let’s see if it continues through the season.