After All That Noise, Angel Reese’s WNBA Finals Dream Quietly Came True

NEW YORK — Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones were the last two Liberty players standing. The clock had already hit zero, the echo of the final buzzer already vanquished down Atlantic Avenue into the cool October night. The crowd at Barclays Center was down-faced, shuffling toward the exits. How could this happen? The murmurs of New York’s tragic fate dissipated into the air. The Liberty had just gotten swept in their WNBA semifinal series against the Dream. As a red sea of Atlanta players relished alone, sans fanfare, in their Finals-clinching road victory, Stewart and Jones lingered on the court, patiently waiting to share a brief moment with the player of the hour: Angel Reese.

A Dream joined, a dream manifested for ATL Barbie. And a dream dashed for New York’s pair of battered veterans. In her first career playoff run, Reese went up against two of the league’s most talented post players, and she won, thrice, booking her first-ever berth to the WNBA Finals.

“At the end, the respect that’s given, talking to JJ and she was just telling me to continue to compete, don’t let anybody tell me who I am,” Reese, who finished with a team-high 22 points, said in her postgame presser. “She really enjoys playing against me and watching me to continue to grow. Stewie also is always [supportive] to me as well. For me as a younger player, I always soak up those moments. I don’t take those for granted because they’re both great players, MVP players that have done a lot of great things.

“... But when we get in between those lines, it’s literally war.”

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Game 3 of the Liberty-Dream wasn’t without the W’s usual officiating wrinkles, though this time New York coach Chris DeMarco did take his reset timeout. It didn’t matter. Playoff Stewie, who was oh-so-dependable in her 35-point Game 2 heater, missed a jumper—a “bunny,” Stewart called it—that would have tied the game with roughly 10 seconds remaining. The air at Barclays stood still, the ball rimmed out and Atlanta crunched out the rest of the clock to win, 85-83, and complete the series sweep.

Friday night’s loss marked another disappointing playoff exit for a New York franchise two years removed from its lone WNBA title. This past spring, the Liberty once boasted the roster of a superteam that some even likened to the dynastic Golden State Warriors. But their marquee offseason acquisition, Satou Sabally, suffered a concussion and sat out for the majority of the season. They waived fan favorite Betnijah Laney-Hamilton in August (in the last game she played for the Liberty, she threw a shoe onto the court). The Liberty’s turbulent season came to a head against Reese and the Dream in a do-or-die Game 3 and ended in a faint whimper, totally devoid of the irrational hope it would have taken to erase a two-game deficit.

Instead, hope lives on for Reese and the Dream, who booked their first Finals berth since 2013. That year, Angel McCoughtry helped lead Atlanta to the promised land before getting swept by the Lynx, 0-3. Can this Angel take Atlanta all the way for its maiden championship?

According to Reese, her long-awaited Finals dream was nearly a year in the making:

364 DAYS LATER… https://t.co/j0NG7ZxesZ
— Angel Reese (@Reese10Angel) October 10, 2026

“I manifested this!” Reese reminded her critics, just for good measure, during her on-court interview after the win.

But those who have followed the Dream star’s career know she didn’t get here by waving burnt sage or summoning Etsy witches. Manifesting really only works if you also put in the work.

About a year ago, Reese successfully filed to trademark the term, “mebounds,” in response to a barrage of online criticism claiming that her offensive rebounds were coming from her own missed shots.

“Whoever came up with the ‘mebounds’ thing, y’all ate that up because ‘mebounds,’ rebounds, ‘crebounds’ … anything that comes off that board, it’s mine,” Reese said in a TikTok video. “And a brand? That’s six figures right there.”

Reese has never been one to shy away from confrontation in her hooping career—it’s nearly impossible to unsee her “You can’t see me” gesture to Caitlin Clark in the LSU-Iowa national title game in 2023. That personality trait goes hand-in-hand with Reese also rather bluntly speaking her mind, as when she voiced her disgruntlement with the Sky organization and even seemingly threatened to force her way out if things didn’t change (Chicago had just missed the playoffs for its second straight season).

Then, the Sky dealt her to the Dream for two first-round picks in April.

Angel Reese, Karl Smesko, Atlanta Dream — Karl Smesko, Angel Reese’s third WNBA head coach in three years, has helped her thrive amid the Dream’s Finals run. | Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images

With that trade, which only ages better every passing day, Karl Smesko became Reese’s third head coach in as many years. Reese arrived to Atlanta with her hands full, carrying the leftovers of her fraught break-up with the team that originally drafted her, the publicity stemming from an ongoing culture war waged between her and her contemporary on the Indiana Fever, and the weight of her own ambition and expectations.

What she perhaps didn’t expect was just how much Smesko would improve her game.

“It’s really hard for me to not want to rush success. And Karl told me how patient I had to be with it,” Reese said postgame. “I remember a moment in training camp where we were going through drills, and he stopped everybody and told me I had to make two [three-pointers] in a row in front of everybody. … And you never want to let your teammates down, [but] we couldn’t resume the drill until I made the two in a row. I was upset with him that day for sure, because I didn’t want to let the team down, I didn’t want to feel embarrassed [by] how long it could’ve took me to make them.

“But now, it’s like so easy. My confidence is through the roof, when I shoot ‘em it just feels like practice. You have those tough times, you have those tough conversations, but he’s a coach that really believes in you and he knows what’s best. … I don’t think I would be in this situation and thriving as I am individually without him.”

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Certain coaches just got Reese. She had a close relationship with LSU’s Kim Mulkey—who’s also known for her fiery and competitive spirit—across their two years together, which included a 2023 NCAA title win. Reese also bonded with her first maternal mentor from her WNBA rookie season, ex-Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon. Weatherspoon, a member of the Liberty’s Ring of Honor, helped guide New York to four Finals appearances, and she was in the house at Barclays to cheer on her former team and her mentee. When the final buzzer sounded and the Dream booked their ticket to the Finals, Reese ran over to Weatherspoon on the sidelines and the two shared a long, emotional embrace.

This season, Reese took home her first-ever Defensive Player of the Year award, in part thanks to her space-eating court presence and dominance off the glass. Coasting off of rebounds and blocks, she had yet to unlock the offensive part of her game—until she met Smesko.

When Reese got to Atlanta, Smesko helped her “change her shot completely,” and he started to work on her three-pointers prior to the All-Star break in July. Make after make, Reese grew more comfortable launching it from deep, and her newfound confidence showed in the box score: She sank her first two three-pointers within the first quarter of Friday’s win over the Liberty. Through five games of the postseason, she’s averaging 18.0 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.6 blocks, while shooting the three ball at a 38.5% clip. That’s a huge jump from her three-point percentages in her first two years in the league (18.8% and 18.2%).

“I think once we have one offseason to really concentrate on it, the sky’s the limit,” Smesko said of Reese’s shooting beyond the arc.

From one Sky to an infinite one, Reese is where she’s meant to be, now. Playoff blood courses through the veins of her more experienced teammates—Jordin Canada cannot be stopped!—but the scent of silverware is enough to make Reese even hungrier and braver than she already was. She’ll talk smack to Sabrina Ionescu, she’ll go stride to stride with Stewart, she’ll hit that three, let out a battle cry and pound her chest with knuckles and all: Finals Barbie is here, and she’s not playing around.

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