CHICAGO — Twenty-three days ago, Angel Reese was still a member of the Chicago Sky. On Wednesday night, she was playing against them. 

Most preseason games pass without fanfare, but there was a large and enthusiastic crowd inside Wintrust Arena for Reese’s return to Chicago, which doubled as her unofficial debut with the Atlanta Dream after a stunning April 6 trade. Reese finished with eight points, seven rebounds, two assists and three steals in 13 minutes in the Dream’s 87-78 victory, but the result hardly mattered. 

This was a night for Sky fans to pay their respects to their former star, and for Reese to close a chapter of her career. 

“Angel, when you’re back in Chicago we love you!” read one fan’s sign. There were other signs sharing the same sentiment, and dozens of Reese jerseys and shirts scattered throughout the crowd. One kid was even rocking a Washington Wizards jersey bearing Reese’s brother Julian’s number 15. 

At the first timeout, the Sky played a tribute video for Reese on the jumbotron, which drew a standing ovation. 

“Just being grateful for my opportunities that I did have here my first two years, a lot of positives,” Reese said. “The fans came out and showed a lot of support for both teams. I’m really happy and grateful, and happy to be here with Atlanta now.”

After the final buzzer, Reese shared a hug with Sky coach Tyler Marsh on the court and waved to the crowd as she made her way to the visitors’ locker room for the first time. 

“It was honestly the first time seeing her since the trade, so I was just telling her to ‘go be great, go kill it,’” Marsh said. “She’s with a championship-caliber team, so you saw some of her talents and things that she can do with them tonight. She fits in perfectly and she’ll be great.”

Reese, the No. 7 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, spent her first two seasons with the Sky. She quickly established herself as the best rebounder in the league — her 13.1 rebounds per game as a rookie remain a league record — and the face of the franchise. But while Reese was an All-Star in each of her first two seasons, the Sky went a combined 23-61 and missed the playoffs in both seasons. 

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Near the end of last season, Reese gave a controversial interview to the Chicago Tribune in which she publicly criticized the front office, coaching staff and her teammates. 

“I’m not settling for the same s— we did this year,” Reese said in September. “We have to get good players. We have to get great players. That’s a non-negotiable for me.

“I’m willing and wanting to play with the best. And however I can help to get the best here, that’s what I’m going to do this offseason. So it’s going to be very, very important this offseason to make sure we attract the best of the best because we can’t settle for what we have this year.”

She eventually apologized and was suspended for half a game. Between that suspension, a league suspension for accumulating too many technical fouls and a back injury, Reese missed Chicago’s final four games. 

During Team USA training camp in December, Reese said she would not request a trade and planned to return to the Sky, but the two sides eventually agreed to part ways. On April 6, the opening day of the WNBA’s free agency period, the Sky traded Reese to the Dream for their 2027 and 2028 first-round picks — a return that was widely panned as too little for a player of Reese’s caliber. 

“I think it was just best for me to move on, and I think it was helpful for both of us,” Reese said at shootaround early on Wednesday.

Now, Reese will team up with All-Stars Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard and Brionna Jones on a Dream squad that won a franchise-record 30 games last season, but lost in the first round of the playoffs. Atlanta hopes Reese will be the missing piece that helps them become a true title contender. 

The early signs are promising. 

“Everybody keeps asking me how I feel, but we’ve been practicing for a week and a half, and it feels like a month, it feels like two months,” Reese said postgame. “It’s been super seamless as I think everybody can see and an easy adjustment for me because I think my teammates and my coaches put a lot of confidence in me.”

“They want me to take the shots that sometimes I’m not confident maybe to take,” Reese continued. “But I was able to come out tonight and take shots that I was not comfortable taking and they still patted me on the back for it and still uplifted me in ways that I probably didn’t have before, so I’m just really grateful for all of it.”