The Dream Are Embracing Everything Angel Reese Brings: ‘She Transcends Basketball’

Team President Morgan Shaw Parker talks about why Atlanta is the perfect place for the young star.

Angel Reese is averaging a double-double through her first three games with Atlanta. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The Dream’s blockbuster trade for Angel Reese in the offseason was a surprise for everyone—even the team’s employees.

As Dream president Morgan Shaw Parker recalls, heads started popping up amongst desks after Amazon Prime Video’s Taylor Rooks broke the news of the trade on April 6. Soon after, a celebration broke out: The Dream had secured one of the WNBA’s top stars. 

“It was a party in the office,” Shaw Parker says.

Now, the Dream are dedicated to turning that splash into a steady current of success in Atlanta. That starts with personnel, including a core held down by guards Allisha Gray and Jordin Canada, along with forward Rhyne Howard.

Despite those key players becoming free agents this past offseason upon the ratification of the new collective bargaining agreement, the trio was among the group that chose to return—a sign that players believe in the direction of the organization. 

“To be able to get that class back and to be able to re-sign them when plenty of other teams wanted them, they chose us and so did Angel,” Shaw Parker says. “And that’s really special, and we don't take that for granted.” 

The trade for Reese represented many things for the Dream. First, the team needed a player with an active interior presence. Second, it recognized that acquiring players as dynamic as Reese on and off the court doesn’t happen every day.

Above all, the Dream felt Atlanta fit Reese like a glove—and vice versa. 

“Her persona, her style of play, and what she brings from a cultural perspective, and her personality just fit right in here,” Shaw Parker says. “We all know that Angel brings a completely different level of cultural significance to this team. I think she transcends basketball. …I’m really excited to see the future together with all of our players, including Angel, here.” 

In her first three games played with the Dream, the two-time All-Star has averaged 10.7 points and 12.7 rebounds in 31.7 minutes played. After spending the first two seasons of her career with the Chicago Sky, the Dream felt committed to provide Reese with a foundation and family in which she can thrive. 

“She really is someone who lifts up others, and she wants to be lifted herself,” Shaw Parker says. “She’s young, she’s hungry, she wants to be coached, and she wants to be supported. And I think Atlanta, from [coach] Karl Smesko to that core group of players surrounding her, she knew she would have that.”

For the Dream, supporting their players goes hand-in-hand with connecting with the Atlanta community. The team’s latest venture gives fans the opportunity to express their fandom in a new way. 

To go along with the Dream’s new Rebel jerseys, the team dropped its Homegrown Collection, its first apparel line created in partnership with Monarch Commerce that was designed with women’s sizing, quality and styling details in mind. 

“The collection is really inspired by the women who wear it, and really a nod to the fact that women were not getting the types of gear that they wanted to be able to rep their teams, from the way that they wear it to how they want to style it,” Shaw Parker says. “We really like to say from ‘the bleachers to brunch,’ you're seeing women want to rep their teams and rep this gear in completely different ways than what we’ve seen from traditional men’s sports organizations in the past.”

Dream players got a first look at the gear while gathering for a photoshoot ahead of training camp, and the response was worth the wait. 

“All of them came in and started just grabbing clothes off the rack, saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is different. Oh my gosh, they finally got it right,’” Shaw Parker says. “And it was like, ‘Aha,’ we finally have something here. Having been in sports myself for 30 years, and 25 of that in the men’s side of sports, it was really special to get that validation and that nod of approval from female athletes that wanted to rep the gear.”

At the middle of it all is the Dream’s Homegrown Rebel jersey, which in part celebrates the WNBA’s 30th season. The design features a black base with peach and blue accents, with “atl” emblazoned across the chest. 

The jerseys were designed in part by Howard and Gray, who felt the team had “earned the right” to sport Atlanta peach. 

Reese was traded to the Dream on April 6. | Courtesy of Atlanta Dream

“They very much said, ‘I feel like our time is right,’” Shaw Parker says. “We, under new ownership five years ago, really had to earn Atlanta’s trust that we were a brand and an organization and a team that was going to grow with them and for them, and that we were going to be worthy of their time and their attention and ultimately their investment in us.

“Peach was one of those things that we felt reflected the city, and we’re really proud to rep it.”

The Dream have set the bar for themselves after a breakout year in 2025. The team fired on all cylinders in the regular season, putting up a 30–14 record to lead the East. That success was cut short, though, when the team suffered a first-round exit to the Fever. 

After retaining their core and adding Reese this offseason, the Dream want to continue to make their mark as a contender—and that starts with making Atlanta proud. 

“Yes, we want a championship ring, we want to host a trophy, but we want to be a championship organization, both on the court and in the office as well, and in the community,” Shaw Parker says about Atlanta. “Our fans show out like nothing I’ve ever seen. …It’s just a really special atmosphere that comes to life in only the way that the Dream know how to do it.” 

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