Angel Reese certainly doesn’t have the smoothest offensive repertoire, but the Chicago Sky star sure has an eye for rebounds. Reese’s glass-cleaning has been so dominant, in fact, that she’s drawn comparison to NBA Hall of Famer, Moses Malone. A distant third behind only Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, Malone ranks among basketball’s all-time great rebounders. Many believe the same will be said of Reese’s career when it’s all said and done.
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In recent weeks, Reese’s detractors have found a way to take away from her league-leading rebounding average. Some have referred to her boards as “mebounds”, combining the words “me” and “rebounds” to represent the fact that a high percentage of her rebounds are off of her own misses.
While it’s true that corralling so many of your own bricks takes away from the meaning of a rebound, Reese is far from the first to bolster her offensive rebounding numbers. Malone’s lengthy 21-year career allowed him to soar through the all-time rankings, but Michael Cooper explained that there was more to the late legend’s rebounding prowess.
“I would consider that with [Reese],” Cooper approved of the 23-year-old being compared to Malone. “Because, you know what, Moses used to actually pad his stats … I talked to Moses so much … Moses would say, ‘I went into a game because [I] knew the stats was gonna lead up to money.'”
Contrary to popular belief, Malone didn’t exactly have to grind for all of his boards. “Moses, if he gonna get an offensive rebound, he throw it up on the board, grab it, throw it up on the board, grab it, throw it up on the board, grab it, and then lay it in,” the former defensive pest added on Showtime with Cooper. “So I got four rebounds and two points.”
Moses Malone wasn’t putting up Chamberlain-like statistics in his day, but his best seasons still featured eye-popping numbers. A three-time MVP, Malone led the league in rebounding in six different seasons, with his best mark of 17.6 per game coming in 1978-79. Considering the era he played, though, it’s impossible to say with complete certainty that his numbers weren’t inflated.
Angel Reese took advantage of ‘Mebounds’ troll
While “Mebounds” may have been away for trolls to detract from Reese’s all-time great rebounding trajectory, the second-year center used the hate to fuel her next business opportunity. She’s already taken the time to thank her haters and even trademarked the word.
“Whoever came up with the ‘mebounds’ thing, y’all ate that up. Because mebounds, crebounds, keybounds, tebounds… anything that comes off the board, it’s mine,” Reese wrote in a June 14th TikTok post.
“Whoever came up with that, the trolling, I love when y’all do it, because the ideas be good,” she added. “When y’all came up with mebounds — cause, statistically, all the rebounds I get aren’t always just mine. They’re the defenses, too, or somebody else’s on my team — but when y’all came up with mebounds, y’all [ate].”
Only time will tell if “Mebounds” continues to stick with the WNBA All-Star after she coined the word for herself. Even if she doesn’t do much with the trademark, though, Reese has proven that she isn’t afraid to take on her haters – or capitalize on their ideas.
