How Angel Reese Manifested the Life of Her Dreams

The college basketball phenom knows what she wants and how to get therewith epic focus, drive, and determination.

- By Amanda Lucci. Photographs by Djeneba Aduayom

If you want to witness magic, ask Angel Reese to put it down on paper.

We're tucked into a conference room at a studio in Baton Rouge on a sunny, warm Tuesday in October, and the Louisiana State University senior is explaining her process of manifestation.

Every January, she mounts a vision board on her wall. To create it, she prints out quotes that speak to her and cuts photos from magazines, then arranges them on a canvas. And now, with two months left in the year, she proudly notes that she's already accomplished nearly everything she envisioned on this board.

Almost 10 million people watched the 21-year-old college basketball star lead LSU to its first national championship and then be voted the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player. In the months that followed, she collected trophies at the ESPYS and BET Awards, did a cameo in a Latto and Cardi B music video, and mingled backstage at a Beyoncé show. "I had a ball this summer," she tells me with a hint of a smile, knowing this is quite the understatement. In the meantime, her Instagram following grew from 70,000 to over 2.5 million-her TikTok, a similar trajectory-all while she inked brand deals with Mercedes-Benz and Reebok.

If anything, her 2023 vision board was conservative.

In January, she prophesied a modeling career. By May, she was posing for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit; moments before we sat down to chat, she did the shoot for the cover of this magazine. She also predicted six-figure earnings. Today, her name, image, and likeness (NIL) valuation sits at around $1.7 million.

"I had high hopes, and I manifested a lot of great things," she says of the past year as she glances around the room, looking at the pieces of art hanging on the walls. None of the canvases are large enough to contain everything she has planned for 2024, though. "I need to find something bigger," she says.