After a season-ending wrist injury, Chicago Sky All-Star rookie Angel Reese watched her team's promising 2024 season end without a playoff berth. Adding to the unpredictability of an All-Star's rookie season, she watched the Sky front office fire head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. Reese is devastated over Weatherspoon's firing but remains reflective and opened up about her fears upon entering the WNBA in a recent episode of “Unapologetically Angel.”

Alongside Hall of Fame forward Sheryl Swoopes, Reese made a surprisingly honest admission about first entering the W.

“When I came into the league, I was scared, and I'm not somebody to be scared, but, like, I was just scared,” Reese said. “I didn't think nobody was going to like me because of everything coming in. I just thought they were just going to treat me like crap. When the whole situation when AT like knocked me down, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, they hate me here.'

“I was like, they hate me, it's going to be hard for me, like, they don't like me. The Vets don't like me, and like when I went to the draft, that kind of changed my perspective,” Reese concluded.

Reese met Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike and Dallas Wings forward Satou Sabally, two WNBA veterans that made her feel at ease about her first season in the pros.

“I met a whole bunch of vets, and they made me feel really welcome. That's what changed my whole thing and made me feel really comfortable in this league,” Reese added. “Maybe that’s also like kudos to why I played so comfortable, because I felt comfortable in this league. The players made me feel comfortable, and as a rookie, I was just so scared of what everybody else thought of me and how they were going to treat me.”

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Angel Reese's ‘welcome to the league' moment with Alyssa Thomas

Angel Reese attends the game between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium
Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Angel Reese made her Sky home debut against the Connecticut Sun when power forward Alyssa Thomas committed a flagrant-2 foul on Reese during a rebound attempt. After Thomas's ejection, Reese embraced her physicality and revealed that the hard foul may have been her “Welcome to the league” moment that every rookie endures.

“I think that was my moment,” Reese said to Swoopes. “I was like, damn, she just ripped my neck off.”

Still, Reese embraced the challenge and “got back up,” as Swoopes reminded her.

“That is a mindset, though, but it’s not just rookies,” Swoopes added. “That’s for any new player that comes in. You got to understand it’s a job.”

Reese initially thought it was personal but embraced the challenge anyway.