Angel Reese has shut down her haters. She lacks scoring they said. Reese has averaged 15.9 points per game in the last 10 games. Okay, she is not a creative player for Sky, they replied. In response, she has averaged 4.8 assists per game which is among the best for forwards in the WNBA. 

Angel Reese is evolving into a complete player for the Sky, regardless of team results, but the trolling hasn’t stopped. Critics once mocked her with the term “Mebounds” for rebounding her misses. Instead of backing down, Reese trademarked the phrase in June and launched a merch line under Angel Reese LLC, pledging part of the proceeds to her foundation’s anti-cyberbullying work. That has drawn praise from many fans and analysts as ESPN analyst Chiney Ogwumike shed light on her struggle again.

Ogwumike pointed out that many things on social media are taken literally by the fans and media alike. They don’t go through the trouble of fact-checking it themselves. Analysts like her who do the dirty work of going through the advanced stats, don’t have enough time on shows to fact-check some fake narratives.  She further went on to give a fact check regarding Reese’s mebounds troll.

Ogwumike said on A Touch More podcast, “Like, I think a good example of this is like Angel Reese’s experience and the rebounds. She is tremendous as a rebounder. But I actually went and I crunched the numbers and this concept of you know, mebounds is her trying to flip the narrative on its head and empower herself, and also like one with a super admirable, like, combat, like online bullying.”

Reese is running away with the rebounding crown this season. The Sky forward leads the league with 12.8 boards per game and has totaled 244, an incredible 72 more than the next closest player. The gap is even more jaw-dropping on the offensive glass, where her 77 rebounds double the league’s No. 2. Still, some fans downplay the numbers, pointing to viral clips of her rebounding her own misses, like one early-season sequence where she snagged five offensive boards in just 19 seconds after missing four close-range shots, two of them blocked. Ogwumike went on to argue that the fans are blowing this issue out of proportion using numbers.

She said, “But like I crunched the numbers out of her, like 13 or so rebounds per game, only like 1.5 of them are rebounds or self-generated off of her misses. And so, like when you start crunching the numbers, it’s like it doesn’t take much. Everyone likes to use those types of narratives to like diminish her game, which to me is very unfair.”

As Ogwumike said, let’s fact-check the numbers, shall we? According to PBP Stats, Reese averages just 1.12 self-rebounds per game, making up only 8.5 percent of her total boards. That part checks out. But Ogwumike leaves out important context, and that matters. The league average for self-rebounds is just 3.7 percent, meaning Reese leads the WNBA by a wide margin in that category. Add to that her 47.4 percent shooting from within five feet, one of the lowest marks in the league, and it’s clear that finishing around the rim remains a weakness. The numbers tell the truth, but they need the full story to be understood.

The mebound troll does have some weight, but this is where it falls apart. Even if you subtract the so-called “mebounds” from her stat line, an unfair move, but let’s play along, Reese would still lead the league in rebounds per game over the past decade. Her dominance on the boards isn’t up for debate, even if her finishing around the rim needs work. She’s the queen of the glass, flaws and all. She has also mastered the off-court skills along with her on-court rise.

She’s still young, and that part of her game is already trending upward. After shooting just 39.1% from the field as a rookie, Reese has bumped that up to a solid 42.4% this season. Reese’s willingness to battle inside and do the dirty work shows up in the stats. In truth, the “mebounds” narrative is overstated, critics use it as a lazy jab, while even her biggest fans tend to brush it off entirely. The reality sits somewhere in between, but none of it changes the fact: Reese owns the boards.

Angel Reese And Co. Can Sink Further In The Coming Stretch

While we have seen Angel Reese grow into a better player, the Chicago Sky have remained the same, arguably even worse. Last year, they were 8-11 after 19 games, and this season they are 6-13, signaling a red flag in their quest for improvement. Their defense saw better days as they conceded 90+ points in only one game in their first 19, while they have conceded that 7 times this season so far. 

This is even after Angel Reese’s sweeping rebounds play after play. With the current record, their playoff hopes already sit on the edge with only a 3.1% chance given by the ESPN Power Index. And the upcoming string of games can slip them further into oblivion. Sky face the premier WNBA ring candidates Minnesota Lynx, thrice in the next four games, with one of them being away. They face the Atlanta Dream, who use a similar strategy of leveraging their bigs and getting boards. 

Then they have the Reese-Caitlin Clark rivalry game once again, and the point guard is back from injury. That triple-double from the opening game of the season will be hard to forget for the Sky. They lost convincingly against them, even without her.  Sky also has the Seattle Storm, who recently defeated the New York Liberty twice. 

On paper, the Sky may not stack up against the league’s elite, but games aren’t won on spreadsheets. With the talent on this roster, they’re capable of pulling off a result against anyone. For that to happen, every player will need to elevate their game. Reese has been on a tear lately, averaging 18.7 points, 15.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists over her last six outings. If she keeps this up, she’ll be a game-changer. But she can’t do it alone, the entire team must rally, bring relentless effort, and play with more heart and determination than they’ve shown all season. That’s the only path forward.