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Angel Reese is officially a WNBA star. The 21-year-old women’s basketball forward was selected seventh overall during the 2024 WNBA draft and will be heading to the Chicago Sky for her professional debut.
“‘ANGEL’ in the SKY 👼🏽💙💛,” she captioned a sweet IG post about her new team.
The Bayou Barbie will be joined by third overall pick Kamilla Cardoso, who helped lead South Carolina to win the 2024 NCAA March Madness women’s tournament. So now, the Windy City will have not one but two national champions on their hands. (Angel and the LSU Tigers won it in 2023.)
Last year, she also won an ESPY for Best Breakthrough Athlete in 2023, and made history for breaking several records in just one season.
Of course, all this recognition has led Angel to some big Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals, which come with a hefty paycheck. Earlier this year, she was ranked eighth for most NIL earnings, per On3. (And now that she’s a pro, those NIL deals are just called sponsorships.)
Naturally, Angel’s new career in the WNBA raises questions about how much she’ll make. Ahead, here’s a breakdown of Angel’s net worth.
Her starting salary in the WNBA is around $73,000.
Angel signed a four-year, $324,383 contract with the Chicago Sky, per Spotrac. She’ll earn $73,439 in her first year, which increases each season until she hits $93,636 in her fourth year (assuming the Sky use her fourth-year option). This is only slightly lower than the salary of Caitlin Clark, who was drafted first to the Indiana Fever; she will top out at $97,582 by her fourth year.
Angel does have the possibility of earning additional incentives like WNBA Rookie of the Year (a $5,150 bonus) and selection in the All-Star game (an additional $2,575), according to USA Today.
Needless to say, this is a far cry from Angel’s NBA counterparts. Bilal Coulibaly, who was last year’s seventh overall NBA draft pick, signed a $30 million contract with the Washington Wizards, per Spotrac. WNBA salaries max out around $240,000, which is less than the lowest-earning NBA player, according to The Cut. Most WBA players supplement their earnings by playing abroad during the off-season.
But this salary will be made in addition to Angel’s existing NIL deals (which are now just called sponsorships). So, you can rest assured that Angel will still be making bank.
She had 17 NIL deals for the 2022-2023 season.
Yep, Angel has a whopping total of 17 different NIL sponsorship deals, according to a March 2023 Sponsor United report. Earlier this year, she was ranked eighth for NIL earnings among all college athletes.
These deals include big hitter brands like PlayStation, Raising Canes, McDonald’s, Coach, Wingstop, Outback Steakhouse and Amazon.
She makes a lot of money from her endorsement deals.
Her 17 deals in 2022 and 2023 were worth around $1.7 million, according to USA Today. Some of those endorsement deals include:
- Sports Illustrated
- Calvin Klein
- Outback Steakhouse
- Reebok
- ZOA Energy
- Amazon
- Starry
- Playstation
- Mielle Organics
- JanSport
In October 2023, Reebok and the basketball star announced their partnership in a fun Instagram post. In the video, Angel is seen putting on makeup and necklaces with “Angel” and “Reebok” on them.
“Reebok x Angel Reese – We’re proud to announce a new partnership with college hoops star @angelreese10 🏀,” the caption said.
She raked in even more deals during the 2023-24 season.
Angel’s sponsorships continued throughout her senior year at LSU. Most recently, she inked a deal with Goldman Sachs to promote the One Million Black Women campaign, which amplifies the voices of Black women to policymakers in Washington, D.C. In an ad that just dropped, Angel can be seen alongside her mom, former basketball player Angel Webb Reese.
“I owe so much to my mom,” Angel says in the ad. “She instilled in me my confidence, work ethic and my commitment to my community. It’s clear that from her generation to today, Black women are still facing challenges. But I believe change is possible. I’m proud to be teaming up with Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women to make sure the voices of Black women in my community and across the country are heard.”
That’s far from the only deal she’s signed this year, though. Angel also nabbed contracts with these big names, according to On3:
- Topps
- Beats by Dre
- Tampax
- Airbnb
Angel appears in one Tampax ad alongside her teammate, Flau’jae Johnson. Awww!
She even surprised the LSU women’s and men’s teams with their own sets of Beats by Dre—in purple and yellow, of course.
She started her own foundation.
With all that money rolling in, Angel has put her funds to good use.
In August 2023, Angel started the Angel Reese Foundation, which aims to give back to her hometown and Baton Rouge. The foundation is “dedicated to fostering equity for girls and underrepresented groups through innovative and impactful initiatives,” and “to ensure equal opportunities for all girls in sports, education, financial literacy, and other areas where girls have been historically overlooked,” the foundation’s website says.
In September 2023, Angel hosted a block party before school started up again. She shared this video to her IG with the caption, “@angelcreesefoundation ‘Back To School Giveback Block Party’ hosted on 9/24/23 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”
