Now with Atlanta, Angel Reese says she is grateful for her 2 years in Chicago but wanted more

ATLANTA (AP) — Angel Reese was surrounded by the love — and the talent — during her first news conference with the Atlanta Dream she felt was missing in her two years in Chicago.

The Dream acquired Reese from the Sky on April 6. Chicago obtained first-round draft picks in 2027 and 2028. Atlanta also received the right to swap second-round picks with Chicago in 2028.

One of the WNBA's most recognizable stars, Reese led the league in rebounds in each of her two seasons with the Sky.

“I’m always gonna be grateful for that because I did experience a lot of great things,” Reese said Friday of her time in Chicago. “I enjoyed being able to grow within my first two years but I wanted more. I love to win, I love to compete and I wanted to be surrounded by people that can make me better.

“And I am not satisfied with what I am as a player and I felt like being around these kinds of players would help me be better. I can help them in different ways to help them win and that’s all I ever wanted. I don’t care about anything else that comes with it. I want to win and being able to come to an organization that really cared about their players.”

Reese was joined at the news conference by the five players Atlanta has re-signed this offseason. Guard Rhyne Howard said Reese, a two-time All-Star forward, could help Atlanta win a championship.

“Angel, I think is special for us because she could be exactly what we were missing,” Howard said.

Reese averaged 14.7 points and a league-best 12.6 rebounds last season. She joins a team that won a franchise-record 30 games last season under coach Karl Smesko before losing to Indiana in the playoffs.

Atlanta also re-signed Allisha Gray, Brionna Jones, Jordin Canada and Naz Hillmon.

Gray finished fourth in MVP voting last season. Howard became the fastest player in WNBA history to make 300 3-pointers. Hillmon was named Sixth Player of the Year and Jones was an All-Star.

The trade to Atlanta came after Reese expressed frustration late last season, with Chicago on the way to a 10-34 finish. She told the Chicago Tribune the Sky needed to improve their roster and added she “might have to move in a different direction and do what’s best for me” if that didn't happen. She later apologized to the team for the comments.

The Sky suspended Reese for half a game for comments deemed “detrimental to the team.” The team held her out for its final three games with a back injury, raising speculation about her future in Chicago.

Reese said the interest from the Dream “was mutual on both sides and I was able to choose a destination I really wanted to go to.”

General manager Dan Padover said adding Reese capped a successful offseason.

“When we went into this offseason, we had two main priorities,” Padover said. “That was retain our core. And to remain opportunistic. And over the last week, I’m thrilled to say we did both. Keeping these players in Atlanta was just so important to us. And the most special thing is that they want to stay here.

“And then to have someone like Angel come in and say ‘Hey guys, I love what you’re doing. I love that city. Let me jump in here.’ And to have this whole group as well as the others that are here today come together to try to build something and win a championship. That’s what sports is all about.”

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Angel Reese speaks during her introduction during a news conference by the Atlanta Dream on Friday, April 17, 2026, in Atlanta. The Dream acquired Reese for first-round draft picks in 2027 and 2028. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Angel Reese is introduced by the Atlanta Dream on Friday, April 17, 2026, in Atlanta. The Dream acquired Reese for first-round draft picks in 2027 and 2028. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Atlanta Dream's Allisha Gray, Brionna Jones, Naz Hillmon, Jordin Canada, Angel Reese And Rhyne Howard hold up their jerseys during a news conference by the Atlanta Dream on Friday, April 17, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Angel Reese is introduced during a news conference by the Atlanta Dream on Friday, April 17, 2026, in Atlanta. The Dream acquired Reese for first-round draft picks in 2027 and 2028. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Atlanta Dream's Jordin Canada, Angel Reese And Rhyne Howard hold up their jerseys during a news conference by the Atlanta Dream on Friday, April 17, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

From the Lindbergh baby kidnapping trial to O.J. Simpson's double murder case, cameras in the courtrooms have long exposed the inner workings of some of America's most spectacular criminal cases. Now calls to bar cameras from Tyler Robinson 's trial in the killing of Charlie Kirk is reigniting the debate over whether they belong.

Robinson's attorneys on Friday pushed to ban cameras from his Utah courtroom, pointing to sometimes sensationalist media coverage they fear will foster widespread bias against their client as he faces prosecution in last September's shooting death of the conservative activist on a college campus.

Prosecutors want cameras allowed, and suggested they could help dispel conspiracy theories and “distorted narratives” swirling around the case since Kirk was shot in the neck while speaking to a crowd of thousands.

“Transparency serves as a corrective to misinformation,” Utah County prosecutors said in a court filing arguing in favor of cameras. A trial date has not yet been set.

Cameras appeared in courts long before the man charged with kidnapping and killing legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby went on trial in New Jersey in 1935.

An earlier photo captured a clutch of mobsters at Al Capone ’s trial holding hats in front of their faces so they wouldn't be recognized. In 1932, a German photographer feigned a broken arm to sneak a camera into the U.S. Supreme Court inside a sling and get a rare picture of justices in session.

Then came the “trial of the century” for Bruno Richard Hauptmann in the killing of Lindbergh's son. It ushered in a new era of criminal trial as visual spectacle.

Hundreds of reporters and dozens of photographers chronicled the proceedings. Popping flashbulbs repeatedly startled witnesses and some photographers reportedly climbed on tables to get their pictures.

Hauptmann was convicted of murder and executed. The chaotic trial provoked a backlash and new judicial ethics rules that kept cameras out of courtrooms for decades.

Whether cameras should be allowed has spurred perpetual disagreement between transparency advocates and defense attorneys eager to shield clients from ignominious publicity that could tilt a jury against them.

In 1962, a Texas state judge allowed news organizations to film the trial of infamous con man Billie Sol Estes on swindling charges.

The case had national notoriety after Estes was accused of looting a federal crop subsidy program, triggering a Washington scandal during President John F. Kennedy’s administration. His attorneys argued against cameras, saying they would prejudice potential jurors. The judge rejected the request and pledged he would not let the media transform his courtroom into a circus.

Court documents later described the scene in the courtroom as “a mass of wires, television cameras, microphones and photographers.” Hearings in the case were broadcast live by radio and television.

Following Estes' conviction, the Supreme Court took up his appeal and said the intense publicity deprived him of his constitutional right to a fair trial. Justices overturned the state court conviction in an opinion that derided “the evil of televised trials.”

“To permit this powerful medium to use the trial process itself to influence the opinions of vast numbers of people, before a verdict of guilt or innocence has been rendered, would be entirely foreign to our system of justice,” justices said.

The ruling was in line with a long-standing prohibition on cameras in federal courts.

Less than a decade later the Supreme Court decided differently in a case involving two Florida police officers who burglarized a restaurant.

Justices said in an 8-0 ruling that states could allow cameras at criminal trials and there was no “empirical data” to show the presence of broadcast media in the courtroom inherently has a negative effect.

In the years following, cameras gradually came into common use in state and local courtrooms across the nation. High-profile cases that were broadcast included murder trials for serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, the excessive force prosecutions of the Los Angeles Police officers who beat Rodney King, and the murder trial of Jodi Arias in the killing of her ex-boyfriend.

Still, restrictions remain and judges typically retain broad discretion over which parts of a case can be broadcast and who can be filmed or photographed.

Donald Trump's trial and 2024 conviction in a hush money case was closed to cameras while court was in session under a New York state law that sharply restricts video coverage. Media organizations used sketch artists to capture the scene.

Arguably the most watched televised trial remains the 1995 prosecution of former football player O.J. Simpson in the death of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. It, too, became known as the “trial of the century” and is listed by Guinness World Records as the “most viewed trial” with a daily average viewership of 5.5 million people.

As the case dragged on for months, viewers were inundated with courtroom testimony and analysts opinions. Simpson was acquitted.

The focus on every aspect of the case raised concerns about potential bias to jurors, and also that the lawyers and even the judge were acting differently knowing they were being watched across the nation.

“People were talking about how the judge and the attorneys were playing to the cameras as much as they were playing to the jury,” said Cornell Law School professor Valerie Hans.

FILE - This artist depiction shows defense attorney Todd Blanche pointing at former President Donald Trump while giving his opening statement to the jury in Manhattan criminal court Monday, April 22, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP, File)

FILE - This 1979 file photo shows Ted Bundy, convicted murderer, in a Miami courtroom. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this June 15, 1995 file photo, O.J. Simpson, left, grimaces as he tries on one of the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered in a Los Angeles courtroom. (AP Photo/Sam Mircovich, Pool, file)

FILE - Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, appears during a hearing in Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)