Sky's Angel Reese compared to unexpected Los Angeles Lakers legend

Angel Reese has gained her share of detractors in her young WNBA career.

But one legend of basketball yesteryear thinks that the Chicago Sky's second-year forward is a lot like one of his former Lakers teammates.

The comparison was made by Michael Cooper, the defensive stopper with the "Showtime" Lakers teams in the 1980s.

He said Reese reminds him of James Worthy.

"I would say that without the dunks," Cooper said in an interview with Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson. "She can get to the basket; she can get flamboyant about it. She gets out on that wing and runs the floor hard, she plays hard and she plays with an heir of determination that you don’t see or haven’t seen in a while. She and Catlin Clark are the new WNBA players that’s going to take the league to the next stratosphere." 

There are a couple ways of looking at this.

First, for Reese, that's incredibly high praise. Worthy, known as "Big Game James," is a top-50 player in NBA history.

Lakers fans, on the other hand, might scoff at the idea that Reese can be anything like Worthy.

It's certainly tough to compare across eras and across men's and women's basketball, but it's definitely noteworthy that Cooper dropped this comparison. He could've left his former teammates out of it, but instead, he used one of the best players he ever played with to lift Reese up.

Sky fans will certainly be thrilled if Reese ends up having a career like Worthy.

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