👏🏀 ANGEL REESE MAKES WNBA HISTORY — BECOMES THE FIRST PLAYER EVER TO RECORD 500 REBOUNDS IN A SINGLE SEASON!
Angel Reese has officially entered territory no player in WNBA history had ever reached before.
Five hundred rebounds. One season. One historic milestone.
The Atlanta Dream star became the first player in league history to collect 500 rebounds in a single regular season, adding another remarkable achievement to what has already become a record-breaking 2026 campaign.
And fittingly, Reese reached the milestone against a team she knows extremely well: the Chicago Sky.
Reese entered Atlanta’s matchup against Chicago with 495 rebounds, meaning she needed only five more to reach the unprecedented number.
She didn’t make everyone wait long.
Late in the second quarter, Reese secured the rebound that pushed her total to 500, officially creating a category of her own in the WNBA record book.
The crowd immediately understood what had happened.
Another record.
Another piece of history.
Another reminder of just how dominant Reese has become around the basket.
But she wasn’t finished.
Reese ended the game with 23 points and 10 rebounds as Atlanta defeated Chicago 106–81. She also contributed four assists, two steals and three blocks in an impressive all-around performance.
That double-double was significant too.
It was Reese’s 31st double-double of the season, extending another single-season WNBA record she already owned.
But 500 rebounds is the number that will be remembered.
Rebounding doesn’t always receive the same attention as scoring.
A 30-point performance produces immediate headlines.
A deep three-pointer becomes a social-media highlight within seconds.
A spectacular crossover gets replayed repeatedly.
Rebounding is different.
It is often built through positioning, anticipation, physicality and effort.
And Reese has turned those qualities into an identity.
She doesn’t simply wait underneath the basket hoping the ball comes toward her.
She reads the trajectory.
She establishes position.
She fights through contact.
She anticipates where missed shots are likely to land.
And then she attacks.
Again.
And again.
And again.
That consistency is what makes 500 so extraordinary.
One huge rebounding night can happen.
Reaching 500 requires dominance over an entire season.
Reese had already rewritten the league record book before reaching this latest milestone.
On August 24, she grabbed an incredible 26 rebounds against the Los Angeles Sparks, setting a new WNBA single-game record while also breaking the league’s single-season rebounding record.
That performance alone would have made her season memorable.
Instead, she kept going.
By the time Chicago arrived for Saturday’s matchup, Reese was sitting at 495.
Five rebounds separated her from history.
She got them before halftime.
There is something almost perfectly appropriate about Reese becoming the first member of the WNBA’s 500-rebound club.
Rebounding has been central to her basketball identity for years.
Long before this historic season, Reese became known for refusing to surrender possessions.
A missed shot wasn’t necessarily the end of an offensive sequence when she was around.
It could simply become another opportunity.
That mentality followed her into professional basketball.
And now it has produced a number the league had never seen.
Reese’s accomplishment also illustrates how quickly her professional career has developed.
She entered the WNBA surrounded by enormous attention after becoming one of the most recognizable players in college basketball.
With that attention came expectations.
There were supporters.
There were critics.
There were constant comparisons.
Almost everything Reese did became part of a larger basketball conversation.
But records have a way of cutting through the noise.
Five hundred rebounds isn’t a debate.
It is a number.
And no WNBA player had reached it in a single season before Reese.
Her 2026 campaign has also shown that she is capable of affecting games in multiple ways.
Entering the Chicago matchup, Reese was averaging a career-high 16.5 points along with a league-leading 12.4 rebounds per game.
That combination matters.
Reese isn’t simply collecting rebounds while disappearing from the rest of the game.
She is scoring.
Defending.
Creating extra possessions.
Generating physical pressure.
And helping Atlanta win.
The Dream’s performance against Chicago provided another example.
Atlanta didn’t merely celebrate Reese’s record.
The team dominated the game.
The 106–81 victory improved the Dream to 28–14 and continued a strong late-season stretch as postseason basketball approached.
Individual history becomes even sweeter when it arrives alongside team success.
And Reese’s response to previous rebounding achievements helps explain why 500 may not satisfy her for long.
After breaking the single-season record in August, she described a straightforward rebounding philosophy: when the ball goes up, she believes it belongs to her.
That mentality has become visible every night.
Missed shot?
Reese attacks.
Long rebound?
Reese pursues it.
Traffic under the basket?
She fights through it.
Rebounding is partly about size and athleticism.
But at the elite level, it is also about desire.
The best rebounders appear almost offended by the idea that someone else might get the basketball.
Reese plays with that kind of urgency.
Now the record book reflects it.
Years from now, basketball fans may look back at the 2026 season and remember it as the year the WNBA’s rebounding ceiling changed.
There was the old standard.
Then came Angel Reese.
First she broke the single-season record.
Then she crossed 500.
And suddenly a number that had never existed in WNBA history became the new benchmark.
Someone may eventually surpass it.
Records are made to be chased.
Maybe Reese herself will raise the mark even higher.
But nobody can change who arrived there first.
Angel Reese.
500 rebounds.
The first player in WNBA history to do it in a single season. 👏🏀🔥
And at only 24 years old, she may be nowhere close to finished rewriting the record book.