Angel Reese has a message for Atlanta Dream fans: ATL Barbie is here to stay.
The two-time WNBA All-Star told People on Tuesday that she was excited when she learned she had been traded to the organization after spending her first two seasons with the Chicago Sky.
“The team has welcomed me so much, the atmosphere, the culture. … I’m so excited to be in A-Town,” Reese told the outlet. The two teams announced the trade Monday, the first day of free agency following the ratification of a new, historic collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and its players union in March.
The excitement appears to be mutual. Shortly after the trade was announced, the Dream online store had made Reese’s new jersey available for purchase. They sold out so quickly that Reese’s mother posted on social media that even she was unable to snag one in time. (Don’t worry, the Dream’s social media team has her covered).
Reese is a bonafide star on and off the court. A known fashion icon, the Dream forward was in New York on Tuesday to help launch Victoria Secret’s new “The Season of Strapless” campaign. It’s the first time the lingerie and loungewear brand has tapped a WNBA player to star in one of its campaigns.
The collaboration follows Reese’s runway debut at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in October, where she was the first professional athlete ever to walk the show. She’s also set to appear in the second season of “The Hunting Wives.”
At the Tuesday event, Reese had a message for Dream fans.
“Atlanta, what up? ATL barbie is in town and I am here to stay,” she told People.
Reese was selected seventh overall in the 2024 WNBA draft by the Sky after a standout college career that included winning the NCAA championship title with Louisiana State in 2023. She has led the WNBA in rebounding in both of her seasons so far and has averaged 14.1 points and 12.9 rebounds overall.
Reese also shared a message to Chicago fans on Instagram on Monday after her trade was announced.
“To the city of Chicago, you showed me real love from day one,” Reese says over a video montage of highlights of her time as a Sky player. “Thank you Chicago. Always, Chi-Town Barbie.”
The Sky went 23-61 after drafting Reese, including 10-34 last season (1-13 in games without Reese) and missing the playoffs for a second straight year.
After spending her first two seasons with the Chicago Sky, the two-time All Star has been traded to the Atlanta Dream in exchange for first-round picks in 2027 and 2028, the teams announced Monday morning. Atlanta also receives the option to swap second-round picks with Chicago in 2028.
“An Angel’s DREAM,” Reese posted on X. “ATL WHAT UP?!”
Reese was already a star before coming to the WNBA after helping Louisiana State win the national championship over Caitlin Clark and Iowa in 2023 and leading the Tigers back to the Elite Eight the following year.
Selected by Chicago with the seventh overall pick in the 2024 draft, Reese finished as runner-up to Clark in rookie-of-the-year voting and led the league in rebounds per game in each of her first two seasons. Overall, she has averaged 14.1 points and 12.9 rebounds a game.
The Sky have gone 23-61 and missed the playoffs both seasons since drafting Reese. On Sept. 3, the Chicago Tribune published quotes from the star player that indicated her frustration with the team’s inability to build a winning roster and an inclination to leave if the organization isn’t able to get it right.
“I’d like to be here for my career, but if things don’t pan out, obviously I might have to move in a different direction and do what’s best for me,” Reese told the Tribune.
After the Sky’s 88-64 victory over the Connecticut Sun that night, Reese told reporters she had apologized to her teammates about the article.
“I think the language is taken out of context,” she said, “and I really didn’t intentionally mean to put down my teammates, because they’ve been through this with me throughout the whole year. They’ve busted their ass, just how I bust my ass, they showed up for me through thick and thin, and in the locker room when nobody could see anything.”
Reese did not play for Chicago again. She was suspended half a game for her comments, which were deemed “detrimental to the team,” served a separate mandatory one-game suspension by the WNBA for receiving eight technical fouls during the season and missed the final three games of the season with what was listed as a back injury.
The Sky said in a statement Monday that the “trade is designed to achieve roster balance and represents a great opportunity for all parties.”
“Angel has achieved many record-breaking milestones in her first two years in the WNBA and has been a competitive force for the Sky,” the team wrote. “We are thankful for her many important contributions to this league and this game, and we know she will continue to have a big impact on the court and beyond.”
Reese joins an Atlanta team that went 30-14 and finished first in the Eastern Conference before losing to the Indiana Fever in the first round of the playoffs. The roster includes Allisha Gray, who finished fourth in the MVP voting last season, as well as sixth player of the year Naz Hillmon and All-Star Brionna Jones.
“Angel is a dynamic talent and a perfect fit for what we are building in Atlanta,” Dream general manager Dan Padover said in a statement. “She has already proven herself as one of the most impactful players in the league, and her competitiveness, production and drive to win align seamlessly with our vision. This is an exciting moment for our organization and our fans.”
Mariners left-hander Gabe Speier (0-2) walked Zach Neto intentionally to open the bottom of the 11th, and both runners advanced on Oswald Peraza’s sacrifice bunt.
Schanuel, who grounded into a double play with runners on first and third to end the eighth, lofted a fly ball to left fielder Randy Arozarena, whose throw home was off line.
Shaun Anderson (1-0) struck out Cal Raleigh with the bases loaded to end the top of the 11th. Anderson gave up a run in two innings.
Mike Trout, who doubled and scored in the third, exited in the eighth after being hit on the left hand by Casey Legumina’s 94-mph fastball. X-rays were negative, and Trout is listed as day-to-day.
The teams exchanged runs in the 10th, Seattle scoring on Randy Arozarena’s single and the Angels (5-5) on Logan O’Hoppe’s sacrifice fly.
The Angels were one out away from victory in the top of the ninth when Raleigh blooped a two-out double and Julio Rodríguez poked Sam Bachman’s 91-mph slider to left for a single and a 6-6 tie. Mariners closer Andres Munoz threw a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth.
Cole Young hit a three-run homer to give the Mariners (4-6) a 5-4 lead in the fifth, but Jo Adell and Frazier drove in runs with singles in the home half.
Seattle’s Leo Rivas hit a two-run single in the second.
Jorge Soler hit RBI singles in the first and third before the Angels took a 4-2 lead in the fourth when Josh Lowe scored on Rivas’ fielding error at third and Schanuel hit a two-out RBI single.
Up next for Angels: José Soriano (2-0, 0.00 ERA) will oppose Atlanta’s Chris Sale (2-0, 0.75 ERA) at home Monday to kick off a three-game set.
Sveindís Jónsdóttir scored two goals and Gisele Thompson also scored to lead Angel City to a 3-1 win on the road Saturday over rival Bay FC.
Kennedy Fuller’s long and pinpoint pass found Jónsdóttir who calmly finished on the breakaway for the 1-0 lead in the third minute. Jónsdóttir assisted on Thompson’s goal in the 32nd minute to double Angel City’s lead.
Jónsdóttir scored again in the 54th minute when she headed home Evelyn Shores’ corner kick to make it 3-0.
Taylor Huff scored Bay FC’s lone goal in the 55th minute. The midfielder was later sent off with two yellow cards, both in second-half stoppage time.
Angel City FC defender Savy King played 82 minutes in her first start since suffering a cardiac event during a game on May 9 that led to heart surgery.
The win snapped a nine-match road winless streak for Angel City. Their last win away from BMO Stadium came on May 2 versus Washington Spirit.
Taylor, 35, hit .186 with a .256 on-base percentage, two homers, 12 RBIs and two steals in a combined 58 games with the Dodgers and Angels last season.
He batted .248 with a .327 on-base percentage, 110 homers and 443 RBIs during a 12-year career. Taylor made the NL All-Star team while playing for the Dodgers in 2021.
Strickland, 37, went 1-2 with a 3.27 ERA and one save in 19 relief appearances for the Angels last season. He has a 26-25 record with a 3.39 ERA and 30 saves in 499 career major league appearances, all in relief.
Neither Alexander Straus nor Mark Parsons were around when Angel City played its first NWSL game in 2022. But they didn’t miss much; in four years the team had one winning season and made just one playoff appearance.
So Straus, in his first full season as coach, and Parsons, 15 months into his job as sporting director, decided to raze the club and its sad history and start over. That break from the past couldn’t have been much clearer than it was in the opening game of the team’s fifth season Sunday, one which ended in a 4-0 rout of the Chicago Stars.
Three of the goals — from Evelyn Shores, Ary Borges and Maiara Niehues — came from players who weren’t on the roster at the start of last season. Borges also picked up her first Angel City assist.
The performance was the most dominant in club history and the margin of victory matched Angel City’s largest ever. It was also the team’s first season-opening win since 2022.
“There is a little bit of a new beginning,” Straus said.
“We’re a completely different organization than we were at the end of last year,” Parsons added.
Angel City proved that when teenager Kennedy Fuller opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, dribbling up the right wing and into the box before driving a right-footed shot off Chicago keeper Alyssa Naeher and just inside the near post.
Shores doubled the lead in the 53rd minute, heading in a Fuller corner for her second NWSL goal before Borges, a Brazilian international, made it 3-0 13 minutes later, jumping on a short goal kick by Naeher, then beating the keeper cleanly with a left-footed shot from the center of the box.
Niehues, another Brazilian international, closed the scoring in the 70th minute on a right-footed shot from the center of the box. Iceland’s Sveindis Jonsdottir got the assist on that goal. Of the four goal-scorers for Angel City, only Borges is over 21.
Angel City dominated the match statistically as much as it did on the field, outshooting Chicago 17-7 and putting six of those shots on target. Angel City keeper Angelina Anderson needed to make just two saves to record the clean sheet.
The announced crowd of 16,813 on a beautiful sun-splashed afternoon was the smallest for an Angel City opener.
When Julie Uhrman and a fledgling ownership group that would quickly grow to more than 100 announced plans to start a women’s soccer club in the summer of 2020, the goal was to build something unique and different.
And in that she was wildly successful: four years after its founding, Angel City became the most valuable team in the history of women’s professional sports while funneling millions of dollars to community programs throughout Southern California.
What the team hasn’t done is win. And that, Uhrman said, has to change.
“It’s time to win,” said Uhrman, who this month is stepping down as the team’s chief executive to take a new role as principal advisor. “We’re in L.A. We live in a city of champions and we want to be on the same mantle as them. It’s a process but we have the right team in place, on and off the pitch, to accomplish that.”
Angel City will kick off its fifth season Sunday at BMO Stadium against the Chicago Stars. Over its previous four seasons, Angel City lost 12 more games than it won, finished with a winning record only once and made just one playoff appearance. And it has used four coaches, three sporting directors and more than 70 players in its search for success.
“We needed to rip it up and start again,” Straus said.
As a result, more than half the players on the opening day roster weren’t with Angel City at the start of last season. And nine women who started at least a half-dozen games last season aren’t there this year.
“This is Angel City 2.0,” Parsons said. “We’ve gone through a huge amount of staff change. We’ve gone through a huge amount of roster change. And January 2026 has become Year 1.
“Year 5 is Year 1 of building what we believe is a sporting organization that can get to the top and stay at the top.”
That’s probably not what the team’s long-suffering fans wanted to hear. They wanted to hear that this is the year Angel City wins a trophy. But after watching his team finish 11th in the 14-team NWSL in 2025, Parsons said that’s not realistic.
“You don’t go from 11th to being a top-four team. I think you come from 11th and you become a playoff team ,” said Parsons who, as a manager, took a Portland Thorns team with a losing record to an NWSL Shield and a league title in his first two seasons. “Last year was a tough year. Now we’re in a better place. So we’re still on the journey.”
Angel City coach Alexander Straus watches over a practice session at the team’s training facility in Thousand Oaks in February.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
So is the league. With the addition of expansion franchises in Denver and Boston, the NWSL entered its 14th season Friday with a record 16 teams, meaning each club will play a record 30 games. The top eight finishers in the table will make the playoffs.
For Angel City, the makeover to 2.0 really launched about six months before Parsons arrived when Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, became controlling owners of the club and committed $50 million to improving it. Part of that investment paid for the purchase and renovation of a sprawling state-of-the-art training center at Cal Lutheran University and part of it allowed Parsons to come in and tear things up.
When he took over as sporting director last winter, Parsons quickly set about overhauling the roster, leaving Angel City with one of the youngest teams in the NWSL, averaging 25 years of age, this season. Two players are still in their teens and eight others have yet to turn 23.
A year ago, eight players on the roster were 32 or older.
Among the key offseason additions are defender Emily Sams, an Olympic champion with the U.S. national team, and midfielder Ary Borges, a Brazilian international. They will join a core that includes Japanese midfielder Hina Sugita and Zambian striker Prisca Chilufya, who joined the team at the end of last season.
Of the four, only Sugita, a two-time World Cup veteran, is older than 26.
“We’re getting closer to competing for trophies,” Parsons said. “But making [the] playoffs right now is a logical next step. This year is about showing that we’re going in the right direction. But we can’t jump from 11th to one. Those days are over.
“We have overachieved the last 12 months in building a sporting organization, staffing departments and [constructing a] roster. There’s going to be ups and downs this year, like there is every year.”
Goalkeeper Angelina Anderson, entering her fourth season with Angel City, making her one of the team’s longest-tenured players, believes in Parsons’ deliberate approach and is confident the team is about to turn the corner.
“Having that methodical approach is really smart and it gives us kind of an overview of like, we want to win the championship, we feel like we’re in a really good spot, but there are daily, monthly, season-long challenges that we’re going to have to overcome if that’s where we want to get to,” said Anderson, one of three team captains. “It’s actually a very smart way for all of us to manage our expectations.”
Uhrman agrees too but being realistic is hard. When she helped launch Angel City, it was with the vision of building a winning team and nearly six years later, she’s still waiting for that vision to be released.
“Our aspiration is to win the championship. Our goal is to make the playoffs,” she said. “And we feel very comfortable that we can do that. It is a process. We’re realistic about where we are in the process and what we need to do to develop and grow.
“Believing in the fact that it’s a process is comforting because we are being realistic about what we are. But that doesn’t change what we want to accomplish.”
