While Angel Reese has caught the WNBA by storm within 3 years, it wasn’t entirely just hard work and grinding. With a family like hers, being a basketball icon was just inevitable.

The Bayou Barbie is coming off a great season, leading the league in rebounds (12.0) and helping the Atlanta Dream to firmly hold onto the 5^th spot so far. However, both her parents played basketball, and her mother, Angel Webb-Reese, passed on more than just her name.

“She’s always been independent, and she molded that into me,” Reese said of her mother in January 2023, per Just Women’s Sports Lyndsey D'Arcangelo. “I am who I am because of her.”

Angel Webb-Reese, who raised Angel and her brother Julian Reese as a single parent, played the sport in college before pursuing a professional career in Luxembourg. As a matter of fact, little Reese grew up watching her mother.

“I used to go to my mom’s games when I was younger,” Reese said, as per the same post by D’Arcangelo. “She used to play in a little league, and I used to always go watch her games on Sundays. That was something that was always inspiring to me.”

All of these set the stage for Reese to go from Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore to the University of Maryland Terrapins, LSU and ultimately the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. And even in stardom, Reese never hesitated to credit her mother.

Angel Reese’s Role Model Is Her Mother

While Reese has made the W her success-land, her brother Julian landed a 2-year deal with the NBA’s Washington Wizards after a collegiate career at the Maryland Terrapins. It goes without saying that Webb Reese totally paved the way.

“Looking at her and seeing how she never backed down to anything,” Reese told ESPN in 2023, as per People Magazine’s Rebecca Aizin. “She always stood her ground for everything. She worked super hard for me and my brother to get in this position.”

“Being able to just look at her and say 'Mom, you showed me. You paved the way for me,” the WNBA star concluded.

Within 3 years in the pro league, Reese has made her mother proud enough. But the Bayou Barbie’s best is yet to come, and Mom Reese has more to be proud of.

Can you name another WNBA player with athlete parents? Let us know in the comments.

Follow Her Sports Nation for more.

Written by

Deblina Roy