Angel Reese Named Unrivaled's Defensive Player of the Year

Unrivaled, the 3v3 women's basketball upstart nearing the end of its inaugural season, has named Rose forward Angel Reese as the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year, the league announced Friday.
Reese leads Unrivaled in rebounds per game (12.1), and per ESPN's Kendra Andrews, ranks sixth in the league with a team-high eight blocked shots.
As noted by WNBA writer Myles Ehrlich, Reese earned the nod by receiving the most combined weighted votes from fellow Unrivaled players and coaches, as well as a national panel of sportswriters.
Unrivaled's Defensive Player of the Year: The Angel Reese ✨👑 pic.twitter.com/quLBBkYZgx
— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) March 15, 2025
Unrivaled is in the midst of playoffs right now, and Reese's team is still in contention. Her Rose team will take on the Laces on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, with the winner of that contest advancing to face the winner of Vinyl-Lunar Owls in the championship on Monday.
Outside of Unrivaled, Reese is preparing for her second WNBA season with the Chicago Sky after averaging 13.6 points, 13.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game as a rookie.
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Brigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film (from the Newhouse School of Public Communications) and marketing managment (from the Whitman School of Management). Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.