Candace Parker Raises Issue With Angel Reese Unrivaled Situation
Heading into Unrivaled's second season, there was a lot of chatter about the many big names that weren't competing this season.
Perhaps the most notable were Caitlin Clark and A'ja Wilson, who are among the two best and most popular players in the world right now. However, given that Clark and Wilson didn't compete in Unrivaled last year, their decision not to play this year didn't come as a huge surprise.
RELATED: Angel Reese Return Buzz Builds Among Unrivaled Fans After Rose BC Trade
The same can't be said for Angel Reese and Sabrina Ionescu. These two are also among women's basketball's biggest stars, and unlike Clark and Wilson, both competed in Unrivaled's first season. So them sitting out this time around raised eyebrows.
But this is not the case any longer, as news broke last week that Reese was joining the Rose BC for the final stretch of the season.
BARBIE HOOPS ARE BACK🌹 pic.twitter.com/31u5e3qz0M
— Angel Reese (@Reese10Angel) February 19, 2026
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Candace Parker Calls Angel Reese Unrivaled Decision Questionable
While Reese coming to the league is great, it seemed to go against Unrivaled's existing player development pool (which is a group of pre-existing players who are supposed to become available in case of an injury or a trade) because Reese wasn't part of that.
WNBA legend Candace Parker called attention to this during a February 18 episode of her "Post Moves" podcast with Aliyah Boston.
"Basically, as a result of [the Aari McDonald] injury, the Breeze BC received Courtney Williams from the Vinyl [BC]. So the Vinyl... received Saniya Rivers from the Hive. So they got her out of the cellar. And the Hive received Azurá Stevens from the Rose BC. But then Rose did not get anything back," Parker said.
"But then — drumroll please — this has already been announced... It was announced that Angel Reese was coming back to the Rose. She was the rebounding leader last year and the Defensive Player of the Year from the inaugural season. And I do think she's gonna give the Rose a boost. But it begs the question of, like, what's the developmental pool?" Parker added before bursting out in laughter.
"If you're just like, 'We're gonna go outside,' which I think it was a great pickup, if you can do it. But it's just, yeah. The rules in place are a little questionable, how you trade something and don't get anything back. And then you pull from outside," Parker concluded.
Parker has a fair point. But nobody is complaining about Reese being back on the court.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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