Angel Reese is the second-biggest name in this year’s WNBA rookie class behind Caitlin Clark. However, she hopes to carve out her own path and will obviously hope to find more success on the professional level than the No. 1 overall pick.

The first 40 minutes of Reese’s professional career were a challenge!

Chicago went 18-22 last season. General manager and head coach James Wade resigned after the season to take an assistant role in the NBA. The Sky hired Basketball Hall of Famer Teresa Weatherspoon to replace him and drafted Reese with the No. 7 overall pick.

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Unfortunately, their tenure together began with an 87-79 loss to the Dallas Wings on Wednesday.

Reese scored 12 points with eight rebounds, one steal, one assist and only two turnovers during her debut. She went 0-for-3 and missed all but one of her free throw attempts in the first half but made up for the poor scoring performance with a strong second half and played well on defense.

Despite some of the initial struggles, a pair WNBA veterans spoke highly of Reese. Arike Ogunbowale sees the potential.

You know, all the rookies brought a lot of fans to the WNBA and we all appreciate that. She’s a great player on and off the court […]

This is her first game, obviously, she has a long career [ahead of her] but this is a good start for her so I think she’s gonna keep getting better.

— Arike Ogunbowale

Natasha Howard was matched up with the rookie throughout the entire game. It was physical!

At one point during the fourth quarter, in an attempt to make something happen, Reese caught Howard with a hard elbow and was called for an offensive foul. She was obviously frustrated by the early struggles and went all-out to try and take over the game.

The 32-year-old forward enjoyed her battle with the 22-year-old.

I think her performance was solid. I pulled her after the game and told her, “keep working on your game, keep doing what you’re doing. I’m proud of you.”

— Natasha Howard

Reese said after the game that her early struggles were not due to nerves. She was just missing.

Teresa Weatherspoon wants Angel Reese to keep her head up!

As one of the greatest women’s basketball players of all-time, Weatherspoon knows what it is like to make the jump from college to the pros. Her first-round rookie’s first game was a great start.

Prior to Reese’s debut, Weatherspoon praised the highly-scrutinized rookie for how she handles constant negative media. They recently had a very open and honest dialogue about fame.

My question to her was, “Being so young and so popular and the things that are written about you that people don’t really even know you, how does it feel?”

She said, “I’ve learned how to block it out and to trust myself.”

— Teresa Weatherspoon

Although the Sky’s first-year head coach didn’t quite share the same experience as her first-year superstar during her playing days, the former has utmost admiration for the latter and who she is.

It’s tough. I have a lot of respect of how they handle themselves with the popularity that they have and then the way things are written about them. If you really knew the person, those things wouldn’t be written. Incredible young lady, angelic type of young lady.

— Teresa Weatherspoon

In Weatherspoon’s eyes, a lot of the hate that is directed toward Reese stems from her competitive nature.

(Reese) loves people. But when people are competing, so they probably would’ve said the very same thing about us. When we’re competing, we’re going to compete, we’re going to win. They would never think I love you. They would never even think I cared about you. Because how we freaking competing and we’re wanting to win? It’s the same dang thing going on now.

— Teresa Weatherspoon