Angel Reese’s shooting just can’t stop catching strays. Dwight Howard is the latest person to join the critics. During his latest appearance at a Las Vegas street ball event, ‘The Superman’ took a playful jab at the WNBA rookie’s struggles.
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The situation unfolded during his collaboration project with the YouTuber, D’Vontay Friga. They attended the event to scout local talents for Howard’s Asian Tournament team, the Taiwan Mustangs. Although the 2020 champion initially disguised himself as a security guard to observe from the sidelines, he soon took to the court to test the players himself.
During an offensive play, one of Howard’s teammates struggled to make the basket. His floater first hit the backboard, then the rim, and bounced back to him. He attempted a layup but missed again. Another attempt with a two-handed layup, and another miss. Finally, on his fourth try, he managed to score.
This hilarious sequence reminded the crowd of Reese’s shortcomings. A few of them even shouted her name to taunt the local player. This prompted Howard to go with the flow. He grinned and teased,
“Yeah, Angel Reese.”
Dwight Howard calling this the Angel Reese is crazy 😂 pic.twitter.com/TGNXotw7UI
— SSN Jay-O (@Jay_3shifty) September 2, 2024
This showcases how Reese‘s gameplay has made her a laughingstock. The 22-year-old has struggled to score from close range, which is evident from her field goal percentage of 38.5%. However, the 6ft 3 rookie is an outlier good at making up these misses with offensive rebounds. This has contributed greatly to her recording the most rebounds in a single WNBA season with 418.
Over time, this dynamic has raised many questions about her style of play. Despite those ongoing doubts, Reese issued a bold statement during her recent post-game conference. She declared,
“A lot of people think it’s because I get my own [misses], but statistically, it’s not. People think it’s because I’m the tallest on the court, when I’m not the tallest on the court. So, just being able to go down there and being able to bang, doing things that a lot of people don’t want to do.”
Her confidence remained justified to a certain extent. For context, as per ESPN’s late August release, only 53 of her then 374 rebounds at the time were directly attributable to her missed shots. In other words, just one out of every seven of Reese’s total rebounds came from her offensive struggles.
This proves how the surrounding backlash is uncalled for. At the same time, Reese must also work on her shooting to counter this narrative. Otherwise, she might find herself stuck in a continuous cycle of scrutiny forever.
