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Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese is on track to be a WNBA All-Star -- and she's chasing a Candace Parker record on the way

Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune on

Published in Basketball

CHICAGO — Accolades are piling up for Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese six weeks into her WNBA career.

Reese is on track to be voted onto the league’s All-Star team, on which she might join top players such as Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston and Arike Ogunbowale. And along the way, she also could break multiple WNBA records — including a double-double milestone set by Candace Parker.

This year’s All-Star Game will feature a 12-player roster of WNBA All-Stars facing the U.S. Olympic team on July 20 in Phoenix. Fans can vote for any player — Olympian A’ja Wilson currently leads voting — and any top-10 finisher in overall voting (50% fans, 25% media, 25% players) who isn’t on the Team USA roster will earn an automatic All-Star selection, with league coaches filling out the remainder of the WNBA team.

Reese, who is second in the league in rebounding behind Wilson with 11.1 per game, was seventh in the first returns of fan voting with 118,490 votes. That ranked fourth among non-Olympians behind fellow rookie Clark (second overall), Boston (third) and Ogunbowale (fifth).

“Every time that she’s stepped in, she keeps getting better,” Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon said. “She does things that are incredible. Just to look at her, to see the way that she rebounds basketball — that’s All-Star status.”

And an All-Star selection is only one goal ahead of Reese. She set a rookie record Sunday with her eighth consecutive double-double, and she’s four behind former Sky star Parker’s overall record of 12 consecutive double-doubles, set over the 2009 and 2010 seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks.

 

Reese could match Parker’s record for consecutive double-doubles within the same season if she records her ninth straight Thursday against the Las Vegas Aces.

But Reese doesn’t want to let records or accolades dominate her focus.

“My strength is rebounding and that’s something I knew I can do coming into the league,” Reese said. “It’s translating really well. I just come to do my job and I don’t want to let my teammates down. If I get a double-double, I get a double-double. My job is to do whatever it takes to win.”

Other aspects of Reese’s game can’t be quantified through simple stats. She seems impervious to exhaustion despite the breakneck rigor of her rookie season, speeding from the NCAA Tournament to the WNBA draft to her first professional games in barely more than a month.

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