Angel Reese has always been around basketball growing up playing on the court in front of her house, competing with her younger brother, and learning tips from her mom. Her brother, Julian, now plays for Maryland in his senior year. Angel herself played for the Terrapins, then the LSU Tigers, and is now a forward for the Chicago Sky. It was the influence of Angel Webb, her mom, but also Michael, her dad. However, the WNBA player seems reluctant to acknowledge him.

In a recent interview with Vogue, Reese talks about fashion and basketball and how the two have always been part of her life. But when the conversation turns specifically to hoops, the Bayou Barbie says, “‘It’s always been both: basketball and fashion,’ Reese says. Basketball runs in the family, she explains; both her mother and grandmother played. And when she was growing up in Baltimore, the sport was just around.”

In the past, Reese has often spoken about how her mom raised her two kids as a single mom, receiving help from their relatives. But Michael Reese, a 6’8″ forward from Washington D.C., was a well-known college player in his active days. Not much is known about him now but he did have successful careers at Boston University and later Loyola Maryland University. At 6’8″, he was also a forward and known for his heated temperament on the court.

“Michael is a terrifically talented basketball player, but there is something that has stopped him from reaching his potential,” Paul McCullen noted in a Jan. 12, 1992 issue of The Baltimore Sun, updated on Oct. 24, 2018. “Reese grew up in northeast Washington, within site of RFK Stadium. He starred at H. D. Woodson High and went to Maine Central Institute in 1988-89 when he didn’t meet the NCAA’s standards for freshman eligibility.”

But while he seems to be out of the family picture now, Angel Reese and her mom are still close. “Most of my family plays basketball, so I kind of had to play,” the WNBA’s 2024 rebounding leader had said previously. And while the Sky forward might not have ever had the chance to attend her father’s games, she did play a year of college ball with her brother.

And used to go watch her mom’s games.

Angel Reese is who she is because of Angel Webb

It was not just her parents who played basketball but her grandparents as well, as did her aunts, Angel Reese told Just Women’s Sports in Jan. 2023. It was a given she and her brother would play but as the Barbie says, it was her mom that was the catalyst, no one else.

“I used to go to my mom’s games when I was younger. She used to play in a little league, and I used to always go watch her games on Sundays. That was something that was always inspiring to me,” Reese says. “She’s always been independent and she molded that into me. I am who I am because of her.”

Today Angel Reese is one of the biggest stars in the WNBA after a notable rookie season, coming right on the heels of a successful college career, not to mention the 2023 NCAA championship trophy. With an estimated net worth of $2 million, the Sky player boasts numerous brnad sponsorships with famous names. And her stock is only going to rise from here!