Angel Reese has never seemed particularly interested in winning a popularity contest. Her game, public persona and growing brand instead revolve around confidence, confrontation and proving doubters wrong.

Reese has inspired a Barbie, walked in a Victoria’s Secret fashion show and mastered the art of maximizing her profile. Her podcast is called “Unapologetically Angel,” an apt title for an athlete who refuses to shrink herself for anyone.

She even trademarked “Mebounds” after critics mocked her field goal efficiency. Her marketing portfolio includes a collaboration connecting her Reebok shoe with her deal involving Hershey’s Reese’s chocolate.

That unmistakable confidence also follows Reese onto the court. Basketball fans still remember her “you can’t see me” gesture toward Caitlin Clark during the 2023 NCAA women’s national championship.

Now 24, Reese enters Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday as the league’s defensive player of the year. She is prepared to show that limited professional experience need not prevent her from commanding the league’s biggest stage.

A finals appearance was a goal Reese envisioned about a year ago while watching the playoffs from home. She had missed the postseason during each of her first two professional seasons.

The Chicago Sky selected Reese seventh overall in the 2024 WNBA draft, and she became an All Star in both of her seasons with the franchise. Yet she believed Chicago was not making the necessary moves to compete at the highest level.

Reese publicly questioned the Sky’s roster construction, including its choice to bring back franchise legend Courtney Vandersloot, who was in her late 30s. The interview quickly went viral.

“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 Chicago Tribune. “But while I am here, I’m going to try to stay open-minded about what I have here and maximize that as much as I can.”

Her bluntness carried consequences. Reese was suspended for half a game, while her teammates and the Sky front office did not receive the comments warmly, and she later said her language “was taken out of context.”

Seven months later, the Atlanta Dream acquired Reese. The pairing quickly made sense because Reese and the Dream shared the same ambitions: improvement, growth and winning.

The Dream had previously been slighted and lacked investment before an ownership change in 2021. With Reese, the franchise invested in developing her abilities, while she helped inject fresh energy into its fanbase.

Reese embraced head coach Karl Smesko’s emphasis on controlling emotions and treating every possession as valuable. Although this is her first postseason, she has hardly performed like a playoff newcomer.

Across five playoff games, Reese has averaged 18 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.6 steals and 2.2 blocks. Those numbers reflect a player whose influence reaches across virtually every part of the game.

Smesko also committed to improving Reese’s three point shot, an increasingly important weapon for front court players. During training camp, he challenged her to practice shooting in front of teammates, an exercise that initially embarrassed her but helped fuel her postseason success from deep.

The coach became her shooting partner as he worked to build trust and understand her better. Their handshake, featuring a fist pound, a raised right knee, a shooting motion and both sticking out their tongues, has circulated widely on social media.

As Atlanta approaches its first finals appearance since 2013, Reese says her impact comes from refusing to play scared. “I always talk about you can’t be scared when it comes to this,” she said earlier this month.

She brought that mentality into last month’s playoff matchup against the Washington Mystics. “I knew I was just going to be fearless. Go out there and play fearless, play with just so much poise, and just have fun and do everything that I can do. And that’s always how I’ve been in my career.”

Reese’s motor and fearlessness are obvious, but her instincts and athleticism allow her to shape games at several levels. Her defensive honor also reflects her command of opponents’ tendencies and her ability to make smart adjustments during games.

That awareness surfaced late in Game 2 of Atlanta’s semifinal against the New York Liberty. Reese instructed veteran teammate DeWanna Bonner to pass her the ball so she could drain time while forcing Liberty players to chase her.

“That’s just IQ right there,” Reese said. “I mean, it’s going to take them a couple seconds to chase me around the court. So, I told her to throw it in the backcourt and I’m gonna run around as fast as I can out there. I took as much time off the clock as I could, and we just executed.”

Reese is now pursuing a championship within her first three WNBA seasons, something last accomplished by New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart in 2018. Whatever the finals bring, Reese has already made her impact impossible for fans, opponents and haters to ignore.