ESPN turns Angel Reese’s 49 ‘mebounds’ into proof that she’s a legendary WNBA rebounder

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ESPN really, really wants you to know how good Angel Reese is at rebounding.

The network published a lengthy feature Saturday about the "secrets" behind Reese’s "legendary" work on the glass.

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Then it spent Sunday’s Fever-Dream game broadcast selling viewers on the article.

ESPN's broadcast plugged its own Angel Reese rebounding feature twice during a live WNBA game, comparing her to Dennis Rodman and Charles Barkley. (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Ryan Ruocco brought it up during the first quarter and praised ESPN writer Katie Barnes for writing such a terrific article. Late in the second quarter, Ruocco tossed to Holly Rowe for another plug.

"You talked about Katie Barnes’ great article about Angel Reese and her rebounding acumen," Rowe said before discussing her favorite part of the story. She then closed with "Great article, Katie Barnes."

So, by halftime, ESPN had promoted its own Angel Reese profile twice during a live WNBA game.

That's fine. It's called cross-promotion and executives love that kind of stuff. They call it "corporate synergy."

But there's a big difference between mentioning a timely feature and turning a regular-season broadcast into a promotional tour for your colleague’s work.

Especially when the story is working awfully hard to convince readers that Reese is not just a great rebounder, but some sort of basketball clairvoyant.

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Let me be clear: