Through just three seasons, Angel Reese has established herself as arguably the best and most consistent rebounder in the history of the WNBA, and she is well on pace to be the league’s overall rebounding leader by the time her career is over. But even as she sets WNBA records and hauls in boards at a historic pace, she has a vocal crop of critics.
While Reese is a dominant rebounder, the fact is that she does often struggle in other aspects of her game. She has drawn particular criticism for her shooting, as she is far from an efficient scorer and often struggles to finish around the rim.
Reese’s shooting struggles, coupled with her rebounding prowess, have led to a narrative that Reese only puts up these big rebounding totals as a result of her “mebounds” when she misses a shot and gets her own rebound. However, a look at the numbers indicates that’s far from the case.
Reese’s Historic Rebounding Pace
Earlier this month, as part of a lengthy feature on Reese’s rebounding dominance, Katie Barnes of ESPN broke down Reese’s historic rebounding pace, illustrating how the Atlanta Dream star is well on her way to becoming the WNBA’s overall leader in rebounds.
“She grabbed her 1,000th career rebound in 79 WNBA games, 10 faster than Tina Charles, the league’s all-time leader with 4,262. Reese has a league-high 384 this season and is averaging a league-best 12.0 per game and 12.6 for her career. If she keeps this pace over Atlanta’s 11 remaining games, she would set the WNBA’s single-season record and become the league’s first player to crack 500 rebounds. Her long-term outlook also is historic. With 1,207 career rebounds (and counting) Reese would need 243 more games at her current pace to break Charles’ record,” Barnes wrote for ESPN earlier this month.
Reese is the only player in WNBA history to average at least 12.0 rebounds per game in a season, doing it in both 2024 and 2025 – her first two seasons in the league. She’s on pace to do it again this season, as she is currently averaging 16/1 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. She also led the league in double-doubles last season with 23. This season, Reese already has 23 double-doubles, which is an Atlanta Dream record.
The Dream star has already added her name to the WNBA record books as she now owns the WNBA’s record for most rebounds in a single game, pulling down 26 boards against the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday night.
‘It’s like it’s in her DNA’
Barnes’ profile on Reese was filled with glowing praise for the Dream star from voices around the league.
“I don’t know how else to say it,” Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon says of Reese prior to their Aug. 3 game in Atlanta, “but it’s like it’s in her DNA to hit that glass.”
“There’s a passion for rebounding,” Chicago Sky coach Tyler Marsh says. “There’s a drive for rebounding. There’s a will to rebounding. She has all of those things.”
“She has a very big rebounding radius,” says Karl Smesko, in his second season coaching the Dream. “Some people can rebound any ball that comes within 2 feet of them either way. Angel can probably get 8 to 10 feet either way.”
“She just wants the ball,” says teammate Rhyne Howard. “Her tenacity in saying ‘I want the ball,’ and going to get it, nothing is going to keep her from that.”
“I literally sometimes sit on the 3-point line and look at Angel and wait for her to get the ball,” says teammate Naz Hillmon. “I’m just like ‘Oh, she’s got five people around her and she’s still getting the rebound. I should probably be more helpful.'”
“She’s got an incredible motor and that will to go rebound,” says Liberty assistant Courtney Paris, who held the NCAA record for double-doubles until Reese came along. “She’s a dog. She wants to go make plays.”
Reese’s ‘Mebounds’
If you’ve followed the WNBA, you’ve almost certainly seen the clips – Reese misses a shot near the rim, gets her own rebound, and puts it back up for another shot. Sometimes, this happens multiple times before her shot goes down. Each time, it counts as a rebound for Reese.
The fact is, has indeed benefited from these “mebounds.” She leads the league in second-chance points and also has the worst shooting percentage from inside the paint of anyone else in the league. As a result, she also leads the league in mebounds, with RealApp listing her at 54 mebounds for the season and Her Hoop Stats listing her at 32.
Reese doesn’t shy away from that.
“If I miss and I know where it’s going, I’m going to go get it again,” Reese told ESPN for the profile. “Like that’s what everybody should be doing.”
Reese has seen the criticism, but she’s not worried about it. In fact, she trademarked “mebounds.”
“I know how important offensive rebounding is,” she says. “It has led to a lot of great things for my teammates. When you get that offensive rebound and you kick it out for a 3, it feels good.
“That’s a rebound, and an assist.”
Not Just ‘Me-Bounds’
While Reese doesn’t necessarily even push back against the narrative that she collects a lot of her own rebounds, the reality is that she is a historically great rebounder even when those mebounds.
For starters, Reese doesn’t even lead the league in mebound rate. While she might have the most mebounds of anyone in the WNBA, she actually barely cracks the top 10 when you compare her rebounds against her total number of offensive rebounds.
Reese’s mebound percentage is actually lower than several WNBA superstars like Breanna Stewart, Aliyah Boston, Flau’jae Johnson, Dearica Hamby, and even four-time WNBA MVP A’Ja Wilson.
WNBA Mebound % Leaders
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— Women’s BBall News (@Jackie2u2vwn) August 26, 2026
When Reese set a WNBA record for the most rebounds in a single game earlier this month, critics immediately flooded to social media to diminish the accomplishment by baselessly claiming that many of those rebounds likely came off of her own misses. However, that was not the case, as 18 of her 26 rebounds were actually on the defensive side of the court, another WNBA record.
The fact is that even if you remove all of Reese’s mebounds this season, she would still be the WNBA’s rebounding leader.
So while she certainly does need to improve as a scorer and a shooter, she does miss inside the paint at a higher rate than any other player in the league, and she does haul in a lot of her own misses; the fact is that Reese is a legendary rebounder aside from all of that.
The numbers prove that Reese really is just an elite rebounder. Some people just don’t want to admit that.
The post No, Angel Reese ‘mebounds’ are not what make her such a legendary rebounder appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.