Angel Reese Named 2026 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, First in Atlanta Dream History

Angel Reese has been named the 2026 Kia WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, the league announced Thursday, making her the first player in Atlanta Dream history to win the award. The honor comes less than 24 hours after Reese helped the Dream sweep the Washington Mystics in the first round of the WNBA playoffs, capping a historic debut season in Atlanta with a trophy to match.

Reese received 46 of 74 possible votes to claim the award in her first year with the Dream after being acquired from the Chicago Sky. The 24-year-old forward, a three-time All-Star and 2024 All-Rookie Team selection, becomes just the second LSU product to win WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, joining four-time winner Sylvia Fowles. She also captured the award in the Unrivaled league in 2025, giving her a defensive resume that now spans multiple leagues.

A Record-Breaking Defensive Season

Reese’s case for the award was built on a season of rebounding dominance unlike anything the league has seen. She led the WNBA with 12.1 rebounds per game while setting single-season records for total rebounds (521) and offensive rebounds (206), becoming the first player in WNBA history to reach 500 boards in a single season. Her single-game high of 26 rebounds against the Los Angeles Sparks in August also stands as a league record. Beyond the glass, Reese ranked third in the WNBA in both steals per game (1.8) and total steals (77), and third in total defensive rebounds (315). She led the league outright in Defensive Win Shares at 3.39 and ranked fourth in defensive rating, with Atlanta allowing 7.9 fewer points per 100 possessions whenever she was on the floor — the best mark on the roster. Offensively, she averaged 16.4 points and 2.8 assists per game while shooting 45.1 percent from the field, numbers that underscore just how complete her two-way impact became in her first season in a Dream uniform. She also became the first Atlanta player to win Eastern Conference Player of the Week three weeks in a row, and added a gold medal with Team USA at the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Berlin over the offseason stretch.

Perfect Timing Entering the Semifinals

The award announcement could hardly have landed at a better moment for Atlanta. The Dream dispatched the Mystics in two straight games, winning 92-77 in the opener before closing out the series 93-75 on Tuesday, with Reese contributing 15 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two assists in the clinching win. Now the fourth-seeded Dream turn to a tougher test: a best-of-five semifinal series against the eighth-seeded New York Liberty, who advanced by sweeping the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx. Atlanta will have homecourt advantage when the series tips off Sunday, Oct. 4, and bettors tracking the matchup can check the latest DraftKings promo code offers as odds for the series continue to take shape. For a team chasing its first conference finals berth in franchise history, having the league’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year anchoring the paint against a Liberty frontcourt gives Atlanta a legitimate defensive identity heading into October.

The moment was made personal before it ever went public: Reese’s mother presented her with the trophy during a team meeting, and Atlanta rapper Latto provided voice-over work for a celebratory video shared across the team’s social channels. It’s a fitting bookend to a season that began with a trade and a jersey swap and ends with Reese etched into Atlanta Dream history. Combined with her 2023 NCAA championship and Most Outstanding Player honors at LSU, the Defensive Player of the Year trophy adds another signature achievement to a resume that keeps growing faster than almost anyone else’s in the sport. With the Liberty series looming, Atlanta will need every bit of that two-way production if the Dream hope to keep their first deep playoff run alive.