Angel Reese will be playing in the upcoming WNBA season. The freshly drafted rebounder has been having the time of her life with the draft celebrations. However, she also knows how to take care well of her loved ones. Off the court, she is always seen giving back the love and support that she has received in one way or the other.
This time too she has come up with a way to cheer a significant person who has been by her side ever since she was a little girl dribbling on with the love for basketball in her heart. Let’s meet her first-ever basketball coach, Jimmy Price.
The special man in Angel Reese’s life
Angel Reese’s first ever basketball coach, Jimmy Price has always been an unwavering support system in Reese’s life. She recently posted a picture of the two on Instagram, with the caption, “Happy Birthday to my first ever trainer! Love You Alwayssssss,” in the story.
Seeing the skills possessed by Reese at such a young age, Price nicknamed her and gave her the moniker, ‘The Big Ticket’, stating the reason to Reese, “One day, people are gonna pay to watch you play.” It was like an affirmation from him as he had already seen what the world was realizing just now. Another piece of advice that he gave to Reese is to never show her back to her girly side as it can take her to places. As it turned out, today Angel is capitalizing on millions from her NIL deals.
As for Price, he runs a basketball training company called, ShotReadyElite. It is a company based in Baltimore that focuses on player development in the St. Frances area. Price has been like a father figure in Reese’s life. As her ‘big homie’, he flew out of Baton Rouge to Reese for a predraft workout with her.
The workout drew Reese and Price to a trip down memory lane as one night they were practicing from 9:30 to around 11. The next morning they came in even before the sun was up. It was just like the morning 5 a.m. and after-school workouts they had at St. Frances.
All these years, Price imparted priceless strategies and techniques to Reese. Let’s find out how he turned Reese into a mean machine on the court.
A true master observes and refines
“She was a fierce competitor. She’s always been like that. Dawg been in her since she was born. This is nothing new,” were Price’s words when he saw that blazing fire in Reese. As he has been working on Reese’s development from time to time, he knows very well her weak spots and places where she can make a huge impact with her play.
He put Reese into mid-post drills that included one dribble pull-up jump shots and the iconic ‘Jordan fadeaway’ or ‘Kobe baseline fadeaway’ in addition. He tweaked the first step she used to take on her downhill drives and her finishes around the basket. Undoubtedly, Reese has always been a remarkable athlete when it comes to rebounding offensive shots.
At LSU, Reese was always focused on the interior as there were multiple guards present on the team, however, now other parts of her game will be visible as well as Price puts it, “She’s gonna be a stretch-four in the league. She’s been playing out of position the last few years. Now, the fans will see her total game.”
Price has indeed come a long way in terms of Reese’s refinement as a player. When Reese was in the 10th grade, he noticed that Angel’s right arm was double-jointed. As a result, she couldn’t get her elbow fully tucked in. So, Price switched her jump shot from right to the left hand as they began the process from the beginning.
“When you transfer from one arm to the other, you have to build that muscle up. Thousands and thousands of shots. It’s still a work in progress. So she puts up shots daily. You wouldn’t even realize if I didn’t tell you,” said Price on this small yet significant transformation in Reese.
The precision and attention to detail is quite uncanny with Price as he takes close note of technicalities like if her left thumb is parallel to her eye or not, if her elbow tucks in properly or not. Moreover, they apply methods like setting up a chair just two feet in front of the basket and Reese would sit with the ball her hands, working her lower body into a lift and rising for a shot.
Then Reese would throw a series of attempts from the free throw line and would gradually slide the chair out beyond the 3-point line with increasing momentum and would fire a deep 3 out of the chair. It is uncommon to fix a jump shot from scratch, on top of that the switching hands move is a rare thing to practice.
Price had never left Angel’s side. He was always there all the way when she was in high school, to three days a week at Maryland, to periodical workouts at LSU. And it is visible the work that he has done in refining Reese’s game when he says, “She’s ready for the next level. She’s ready for the challenge because she knows she’s one of them now. And she’s been preparing for that since the eighth grade.”
