A commemoration of Caitlin Clark’s meteoric career at Iowa and an assessment of the start of her WNBA rookie season.
A commemoration of Caitlin Clark’s meteoric career at Iowa and an assessment of the start of her WNBA rookie season.
The WNBA will send out ballots for the end-of-season awards late next week. Sixty-eight media members have eight days to submit selections for ten different awards, including Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year and first- and second-team All-WNBA.
What I’m about to say will never happen, and I’m aware it would be deeply unpopular on the fringes of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s fanbases, where rational discussion dies and a compliment from one player is seen as a criticism of the other. But who cares. Let’s do it anyway.
For me, this season’s Rookie of the Year award should be shared by Clark and Reese, not just because of their performance on the field, where they have all done things never before seen in the nearly three-decade history of the competition, but also because of their impact on the field. It. The two were like neodymium magnets, attracting viewers and generating revenue at a dizzying pace.
Longtime league followers will argue that the W’s popularity was already on the rise before the arrival of the rookies, which is true. But interest among mainstream media and casual fans was negligible for much of that time. In fact, broadcast partners treated the W as an afterthought, not promoting or amplifying it with much vigor.
Today, however, the competition has a permanent place on ESPN’s schedule and its stars are sought-after guests on popular podcasts. Is that just because of Clark and Reese? No. But is that largely because of them? Yes.
Their Q scores coming out of college were as high or higher than anyone else’s in the W, the byproduct of a rivalry that started two seasons ago when Reese and LSU defeated Clark and Iowa for the NCAA championship. When they moved to the W, the two brought all those eyeballs with them, increasing the league’s popularity to a point not seen since its first season.
Their influence is reflected in the visitor numbers. Clark, the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history, has helped the Indiana Fever rise from 11th among the 12 teams with average attendance in 2023, with 4,066 spectators, to No. 1 with 16,978. according to Across the Timeline. Not surprisingly, the Fever were the opponent in July when the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces drew 20,366 fans to T-Mobile Arena, recording the largest WNBA crowd in 25 years.
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The fact that Indiana is also the top-performing road team shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone — according to Across the Timeline, the Fever draw an average of 14,837 spectators away from home — but it might surprise casual observers to learn that the struggling Chicago Sky are ranked No. 2 .The main reason? They are led by Reese and her 4.1 million Instagram followers.
That’s why I think they should share the prize. Years from now, when thinking about the league’s growth, all roads will likely lead back to 2024 and the arrival of Clark and Reese. What better way to recognize that than to put their names side by side in the record books?
I don’t care what comparisons you make @Reese10Angel And @CaitlinClark22 earn the Rookie of the Year Award! The pressure and weight of this season have changed the situation forever @WNBA and both rookies rose to the top and exceeded all our expectations! Take a bow ladies👏🏽👏🏽
— Lisa Leslie (@LisaLeslie) September 2, 2024
I understand why some prefer to limit voting to on-field performance. If forced to do so, my vote, if I had one, would go to Clark. Her ability to impact games as a shooter, passer and pace setter is remarkable, and she only expects to get better. Additionally, she has helped make the Fever relevant for the first time in years, taking them from a 3-10 start to a team that could be a problem in the playoffs.
Indiana has won four in a row, six of seven, and is 9-3 since July 6. During that stretch, the Fever defeated four of the top five teams in the standings – New York, Connecticut, Seattle and Minnesota – as well as a dangerous Dallas team. At 17-16, they have clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 2016, are above .500 for the first time in more than five years and have scored 100 or more points in back-to-back games for the first time in franchise history. That means something.
Individually, Clark has broken the franchise’s rookie scoring record, the W’s single-game assists record (19 vs. Dallas) and is on pace to break the league’s single-season assists record. She currently ranks first with an average of 8.4 assists per game. More telling is that she has scored or assisted on 37.3 percent of Fever points. according to ESPNwhich would break the WNBA record if it holds.
Reese’s game isn’t as diversified or polished, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less dominant. When you break league records – not just rookie records – once held by legends like Candace Parker, Sylvia Fowles and Tina Charles, you’re in rarefied air, which is the case for Reese. The “Bayou Barbie,” as she is known, is a ruthless glass cleaner who holds league records for total rebounds and offensive rebounds. She is also a walking double-double whose 15 consecutive games with double figures in points and rebounds broke Parker’s mark. She currently has 25 double-doubles, which is three shy of Alyssa Thomas’ league record set in 2023.
GO DEEPER
Angel Reese sets a rebounding WNBA single-season record
But talking about Reese or Clark only in terms of statistics seems insufficient given their importance to the league. Some have tried to compare their arrival to that of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the NBA in 1979. While similar in some ways, they were rivals competing against each other in an NCAA final; also one is black and the other white – there is a subtle but significant difference. Johnson and Bird have helped revive a dying league, while Clark and Reese have built on a foundation that was already in place, which is no small feat. The achievement becomes even more impressive when you look at the growth of the competition.
Think about it: The W tracks the demographics of its audience and what it calls complementary audience characteristics (CVM) among diversified groups. In the first month of the season, CVM grew 60 percent year over year among people of color. The most represented demographic groups in that category – Hispanics and African Americans – saw a 96 percent and 67 percent increase in viewership year-over-year, respectively. according to the competition.
“The growth of a diverse audience also results in deeper and more frequent single-user engagement across digital platforms,” the league said in a statement at the time. “The number of monthly active users of the WNBA App increased 613 percent year-over-year, and League Pass subscriptions more than tripled in the first two weeks of the season, with the highest average minutes watched in history of the competition.”
I’d say these numbers are bigger than any player stat, which is why Clark and Reese should split the prize.
(Photo of Caitlin Clark, left, and Angel Reese: Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)
