Officiating has been the issue under the microscope since the 2024 WNBA season. While the league amended it for better movement and player safety in the offseason, it has only gotten worse. And when Angel Reese once again found herself battling foul trouble against the Golden State Valkyries on Friday, the Atlanta Dream head coach Karl Smesko decided to say what many around the league have been thinking.

“I do think it’s hard for her [Reese] because I think you know sometimes she does not get the benefit of the calls,” coach Smesko told Emmanuel Glaze. “Like, if she shuffles a pivot foot, she’s going to get called for travel, and then you’ll see much more egregious travels at the other end, and there won’t be anything.

“If she’s not completely vertical, it’s usually a foul, if somebody else isn’t, I don’t know. If her screen isn’t completely legal, they’re going to catch it. And then if it’s somebody else, I’m not sure. I think just Angel gets a lot of attention, and I think sometimes that leads to her not getting the benefit of the calls.”

In the game, Angel Reese picked up three fouls in the opening two quarters against the Valkyries, forcing Atlanta to carefully manage her minutes for the rest of the night. To her credit, she did end up avoiding them after halftime, only picking up her fourth personal in the closing seconds. But by then, the damage was already done as Atlanta fell to a second straight loss against Golden State (78-75).

However, the concern is that it is no longer just one bad night.

With her 14.7 points and 11.8 boards per game average, Reese has established herself as one of the league’s premier rebounders and double-double machines. But she has also already been whistled for 67 personal fouls through just 18 games. 

According to Across The Timeline, the 24-year-old leads the WNBA in the Flagrant Foul category with two, while her five technical fouls are the highest in the league. Ironically, she shares the most tech space with her arch-rival, Caitin Clark.

Constant whistles are now more like a pattern, especially in physical games where she spends most of her time battling for rebounds and protecting the paint. Unfortunately, this is happening after the WNBA has already taken action for improvement.

Back in the 2025 season, players and coaches repeatedly complained about the physicality and a lack of consistent calls. That criticism became so loud that the league formed an offseason task force made up of coaches and general managers to improve officiating consistency and cut down on excessive physicality. But the consequences might not have been what anyone expected. And Monty McCutchen, head of NBA, WNBA, and G League officiating, is continuing to give a standard answer.

“Refereeing remains an imperfect craft and we’re not claiming any kind of perfection here,” McCutchen said last month. “This idea that basketball is a non-contact sport is a little silly. We want to create the right environment where people are rewarded for assertive play. But we’ve collectively felt that the league had taken a step into rough play.”

Last season, officials called an average of 32.4 fouls per game, which has jumped to 41.8 fouls in the first month of this season. That means players like Angel Reese, whose game is built on physical dominance, find it increasingly difficult to play their natural game without getting into foul trouble.

“We’re trying to address it through the league. We’re trying to let officials know whenever we see it on the floor. And then for Angel, it’s just an understanding that in every game, there’s going to be some bad calls, and we’re going to have to keep playing. We’re going to do everything that we can for her to kind of address the situation going forward,” the coach added.

So as the season moves forward, if this trend continues, Angel Reese could soon find herself dealing with far more than foul trouble.

With five technical fouls already on her record and the league having issued her a warning letter, every whistle from here on carries a little more weight. Whether the refs are calling her out more often than others or not, one thing is certain: she can’t afford to keep living on the edge of the rulebook if Atlanta wants its star on the floor when it matters most.