Forget about being green.
With apologies to Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being Barbie, or ATL Peach Barbie, or better yet, ATL Barbie, which is the nickname Angel Reese prefers these days since transferring her prominent face and game in April from the Chicago Sky to the Atlanta Dream.
If Reese isn’t the most famous 24-year-old woman on the planet, she is deep in the mix with the likes of Caitlin Clark, her archenemy in sneakers since their college days, and Billie Eilish, who can sing more than a little, but who doesn’t have the combination of Reese’s other stuff that includes picking and rolling.
About Reese’s other stuff . . .
She strutted across the runway at Victoria’s Secret fashion show when she wasn’t promoting the wares of the women’s retailer in general. She made Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue. She hosts a podcast. According to Forbes, she has deals with 2K Sports, Amazon, Beats by Dre, Coty, General Mills, LVMH, McDonald’s, Panini, Reebok and The Hershey Company.
Consider, too, she spent last year ranked 15th on Forbes’ list for world’s highest-paid female athletes at $9.4 million.
It also helps Reese’s notoriety that she is a splendidly athletic 6-foot-3 and can use that with her 165 pounds to rebound like crazy during WNBA games while doing more feats, ranging from swatting shots of opponents toward the stratosphere or performing efficiently in the post.
She took LSU to the women’s Final Four national championship over Clark and Iowa in April of 2023, and a month later, she celebrated her 21st birthday by buying a black Mercedes-Benz.
She could afford it.
She was the queen of NIL (name, image and likeness) deals. According to Yahoo Sports, she tied with UCLA quarterback Chase Griffin for the second-most among male and female college athletes with 26.
That’s a lifetime of visibility for Reese, and we’ve yet to mention the youth leagues around her native Baltimore area, where she competed against older players and even boys who rubbed their eyes over the hoop skills of a girl.
Which made me wonder . . .
With Reese sitting across the way Saturday afternoon in Atlanta at State Farm Arena after she did much to help the Dream stay among the WNBA elite at 11-4 following a 113-96 victory over the Indiana Fever, I wanted to know: What’s it like being Angel Camille Reese on an average day?
What is the response you get when you’re walking around town here in Atlanta compared to what you got in Chicago?
Reese formed that (ahem) Barbie smile before wasting zero time answering in the only way she knows.
Charismatically.
“Well, one,” said Reese, with that smile becoming an infectious laugh, causing nearly everybody else in the room to follow suit.
Then she added, “I think everybody knows I’ve never walked around town anywhere. I can’t walk around town. I wish. One of my teammates was just asking me, when is the last time I was able to stroll just down the street. Unfortunately, I have not been able to do that, but I do appreciate the support here in Atlanta, even though I haven’t been able to talk to them.
“But I do enjoy the fan base here. It’s amazing. It’s healthy. Everybody comes out and really supports us. Just to be able to see Atlanta show up.”
It sort of did BB (Before Barbie), and why not?
The Dream were loaded with backcourt All-Stars Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray, and point guard Jordin Canada was among the league’s best. The bench eventually became long and gifted with Te-Hina Paopao, Madina Okot and others, and then the Dream caused nightmares for their opponents with one of the grandest deals ever during WNBA free agency.
On April 6, the Dream snatched Reese away from her frustrations with a dysfunctional Chicago franchise by giving the Sky first-round draft picks in 2027 and 2028. The Dream also received the right to swap second-round picks with Chicago in 2028. With no hope of challenging anytime soon for a world title, and with the WNBA’s seventh-high payroll, Chicago just wanted to unload a disgruntled Reese and her contract, which sat on the verge of rising toward the far side of the moon.
Atlanta couldn’t care less.
See the list of talented Dream players.
Nevertheless, Reese is a pricy addition.
Since she was the seventh overall pick by Chicago in the 2024 WNBA draft, she is in the third year of a four-year rookie contract. It initially was worth $324,383 overall, but she and 37 other players on existing deals had their salaries adjusted to match the updated rookie scale in the new collective bargaining agreement signed last month. Spotrac.com noted that her base salary for 2026 jumped from $75,000 to $350,692.
According to Yahoo.com, “Reese’s contract has a team option for the 2027 season. If exercised, she’d earn $396,282 – unless she receives All-WNBA honors this season, in which case she’d be eligible next season for a maximum contract worth up to $1.4 million. That’s not a far-fetched scenario for Reese, a two-time WNBA All-Star who led the league in rebounding average in each of her first two seasons and was named to the All-Rookie team in 2024.”
Those are future Dream worries.
As for now, here’s all you need to know: The Dream just had their 51st consecutive home sellout, the longest streak in the WNBA. Granted, they normally play in the smallest facility in the league (Gateway Center Arena, with a capacity of 3,500), but a sellout is a sellout.
Not only that, but the Dream’s growing popularity — featuring energetic crowds and nationally known local performers during games — forced the franchise to schedule five games this season at State Farm Arena (basketball capacity of around 17,000). The Dream announced last week they’re adding a sixth home game this season at State Farm Arena when defending world champion Las Vegas Aces come to town on August 3.
Indiana is without the Las Vegas distinction of two WNBA titles in the last three years, but Indiana does have Clark.
She contributed the most to the league’s record TV and attendance numbers in 2024 with her ability to nail shots from everywhere on the court, deliver impossible passes to teammates and become a massive draw at home and on the road courtesy of her ability in a flash to get under the skin of opponents, referees and also teammates and coaches.
Clark and Reese began feuding when their college teams made consecutive trips to the women’s Final Four national championship game. Reese won the first one with LSU while delivering a taunting gesture toward Clark along the way, but Clark and Iowa took the rematch in 2024.
Their battles in the WNBA have featured physical play and trash talk, so this was just more of the same Saturday. It ended back-to-back games between Atlanta and Indiana, and the Dream also took the other one Thursday (108-101), but that was on the road.
For Saturday’s home game, everybody came to hug the Dream.
Well, mostly Barbie.
Latto was there, along with Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins, Dawn Staley of South Carolina coaching fame, prolific boxer Claressa Shields, local rapper Fabo and Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens.
Jaleel White also was there.
You know, Steve Urkel.
“They show up. Atlanta’s big. Everybody loves being in the ‘A.’ The celebrities and everybody else,” said Reese, whose eight rebounds against Indiana gave her 1,000 in 79 games to become the fastest WNBA player to reach that milestone. “It’s like the mecca here, and this is during the summertime, when everybody is rolling through the city, and everybody wants to be here, which makes it really cool.
“And when you win, it makes it even better.
By the way, Dream officials said in their press release last week regarding the switch of the Las Vegas game from tiny Gateway Arena to larger State Farm Arena on August 3: “The game will also serve as the Dream’s Barbie Game Day, celebrating the iconic brand’s legacy of inspiring women and girls to imagine their limitless potential.”
Yeah, well.
To translate: That August 3 game is all about the Dream’s living Barbie, the one who doesn’t get out much.
