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Reese Has Rough Night
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Reese Has Rough Night

Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese had a Wednesday night she'd probably prefer not to see turned into a highlight reel. Unfortunately for her, social media had other plans.

Reese struggled offensively during the Dream's game against the Phoenix Mercury, shooting below 60 percent and producing several misses that quickly became the subject of online mockery. One circulating video strings together attempt after attempt in which Reese simply cannot get the ball through the hoop.

The particularly rough part is how open she appears on several of them.

On a number of attempts, especially when Reese moves more than a few feet from the basket, there doesn't appear to be a Mercury defender applying much pressure. Whatever Phoenix's defensive reasoning was, the resulting footage isn't flattering: Reese gets opportunities to shoot and repeatedly fails to capitalize.

For a professional basketball player who attracts as much attention as Reese, that's guaranteed to become social-media ammunition.

And Wednesday wasn't her first awkward shooting moment of the week.


During Monday's game against the Las Vegas Aces, Reese attempted an unusual shot while contorting her body away from the basket. The backward, over-the-head effort missed badly, bouncing off the backboard and immediately generating another round of ridicule online.

Reese did manage to remain active around the basket, something that has become central to both her game and the running jokes surrounding it.

Critics have long dubbed some of her rebounds "me-bounds," a sarcastic reference to occasions when she collects the rebound after missing her own shot. The joke has followed Reese throughout her professional career because her rebounding numbers can be impressive even on nights when her shooting efficiency isn't.

There is a serious basketball issue buried underneath all the memes.

Reese's rebounding ability has never been difficult to see. Her offensive game away from the basket has been a much easier target. If opposing defenses are comfortable giving her space on longer attempts, converting those open looks becomes increasingly important. Missing them allows defenders to concentrate their attention elsewhere.


Reese has also been generating headlines away from basketball.

Late last month, she appeared at an event unveiling a Mattel Barbie modeled after her, complete with a pink uniform and her signature footwear. During the presentation, Reese explained why having a doll modeled after her carried personal significance.

"Honestly, I didn't have a lot of dolls, because I didn't have dolls that really looked like me much," Reese said. "That's why I kind of really wanted to make sure this was super intentional."

That comment generated its own argument.

Black dolls certainly existed throughout Reese's childhood. Mattel introduced Christie, a Black character in the Barbie universe, in 1968 and released a Black doll officially named Barbie in 1980. Reese, born in 2002, therefore grew up decades after Black representation had arrived in the Barbie line.


That history doesn't necessarily contradict Reese's narrower statement that she personally didn't have many dolls she felt looked like her. It does, however, explain why critics pushed back against broader interpretations suggesting Black girls of her generation had no representative dolls available.

Now attention has swung back where it belongs for a professional athlete: the court.

And Reese has provided critics with plenty of fresh material.

Professional basketball is unforgiving that way. A strange miss on Monday can become a viral clip before the next game arrives. Follow it with another collection of open misses Wednesday, and suddenly somebody has enough footage for a compilation.

Written by Arthur Higgens - August 7, 2026