A commemoration of Caitlin Clark’s meteoric profession at Iowa and analysis of the beginning of her WNBA rookie season.
A commemoration of Caitlin Clark’s meteoric profession at Iowa and analysis of the beginning of her WNBA rookie season.
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Late subsequent week, the WNBA will ship out ballots for its end-of-season awards. Sixty-eight media members may have eight days to submit choices for 10 totally different awards, together with Most Helpful Participant, Defensive Participant of the Yr, and first- and second-team All-WNBA.
What I’m about to say won’t ever occur, and I’m equally conscious it might be wildly unpopular on the fringes of Caitlin Clark’s and Angel Reese’s fan bases, the place rational dialogue goes to die and a praise of 1 participant is seen as a criticism of the opposite. However, what the heck. Let’s do it anyway.
For me, this season’s Rookie of the Yr award must be shared by Clark and Reese, not just for their performances on the court docket, the place every has performed issues by no means earlier than seen within the league’s practically three-decade historical past, but in addition for his or her affect off it. The 2 have been like neodymium magnets, attracting viewers and producing income at a dizzying price.
Longtime league followers will argue the W’s reputation was trending up earlier than the rookies’ arrival, which is true. However the degree of curiosity amongst mainstream media and informal followers was negligible for a lot of that point. Broadcast companions even handled the W as an afterthought, neither selling nor amplifying it with a lot vigor.
At present, nevertheless, the league has an everyday place on the ESPN rundown sheet, and its stars are sought-after friends on in style podcasts. Is that solely due to Clark and Reese? No. However is it largely due to them? Sure.
Their Q Scores popping out of faculty had been as excessive or greater than anybody within the W, the byproduct of a rivalry that started two seasons in the past when Reese and LSU defeated Clark and Iowa for the NCAA championship. In transitioning to the W, the 2 introduced all these eyeballs with them, elevating the league’s reputation to a degree not seen since its inaugural season.
Their affect will be seen in attendance figures. Clark, the all-time main scorer in NCAA historical past, has helped the Indiana Fever go from rating eleventh amongst 12 groups in common attendance in 2023, at 4,066 spectators, to No. 1 at 16,978, based on Throughout the Timeline. Not surprisingly, the Fever had been the opponent in July when the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces attracted 20,366 followers to T-Cell Area to document the biggest WNBA crowd in 25 years.
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The truth that Indiana can be the top-drawing street staff mustn’t come as a shock to anybody — the Fever are averaging 14,837 spectators away from house, based on Throughout the Timeline — however it would possibly shock informal observers to study that the struggling Chicago Sky rank No. 2. The primary cause? They’re led by Reese and her 4.1 million Instagram followers.
That’s why I imagine they need to share the award. Years from now when assume items are performed on the expansion of the league, all roads are prone to lead again to 2024 and the arrival of Clark and Reese. What higher strategy to acknowledge that than by having their names aspect by aspect within the document books?
I don’t care what comparisons you make each @Reese10Angel and @CaitlinClark22 deserve the Rookie of the Yr Award! The stress and the load of this season has perpetually modified the @WNBA and each rookies rose to the highest and exceeded all our expectations! Take a bow girls👏🏽👏🏽
— Lisa Leslie (@LisaLeslie) September 2, 2024
I get why some would like to cut back the vote to on-court efficiency. If pressured to take action, my vote, if I had one, would go to Clark. Her capability to affect video games as a shooter, passer and pace-setter is exceptional, and she or he solely figures to get higher. Past that, she has helped to make the Fever related for the primary time in years, rallying them from a 3-10 begin to a staff that could possibly be an issue within the playoffs.
Indiana has gained 4 in a row, six of seven, and is 9-3 since July 6. Throughout that stretch, the Fever defeated 4 of the highest 5 groups within the standings — New York, Connecticut, Seattle and Minnesota — in addition to a harmful Dallas staff. At 17-16, they’ve clinched a playoff spot for the primary time since 2016, are over .500 for the primary time in additional than 5 years and have scored 100 or extra factors in back-to-back video games for the primary time in franchise historical past. Meaning one thing.
Individually, Clark has damaged the franchise’s rookie scoring document, the W’s single-game assists document (19 vs. Dallas) and is on tempo to interrupt the league’s single-season assists mark. She at the moment ranks first with a mean of 8.4 assists per sport. Extra tellingly, she has scored or assisted on 37.3 p.c of the Fever’s factors, based on ESPN, which might break the WNBA document if it holds.
Reese’s sport just isn’t as diversified or polished, however that shouldn’t be taken to imply it’s any much less dominant. While you break league data — not simply rookie data — as soon as 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 understood, is a relentless glass cleaner who holds league data for whole rebounds and offensive rebounds. She is also a strolling double-double whose 15 consecutive video games with double digits in factors and rebounds broke Parker’s mark. She at the moment has 25 double-doubles, which is three shy of the league document set by Alyssa Thomas in 2023.
GO DEEPER
Angel Reese units WNBA single-season rebounding document
However speaking about Reese or Clark solely when it comes to statistics appears inadequate contemplating their significance to the league. Some have tried to check their arrival to that of Magic Johnson and Larry Chook within the NBA in 1979. Though related in some methods — they had been rivals who competed towards one another in an NCAA ultimate; additionally one is Black, the opposite White — there’s a refined but vital distinction. Johnson and Chook helped resuscitate a dying league, whereas Clark and Reese have constructed on a basis that was already in place, which isn’t any small feat. The accomplishment turns into much more spectacular when wanting on the progress of the league.
Take into account: The W tracks the demographic make-up of its audiences and what it calls complementary viewership marks (CVM) amongst diversified teams. Within the first month of the season, its CVM grew 60 p.c yr over yr amongst folks of coloration. Probably the most represented demographic teams in that class — Hispanics and African People — had a 96 p.c and 67 p.c year-over-year enhance in viewership, based on the league.
“The expansion of numerous audiences can be leading to deepened and extra frequent single-user engagement throughout digital platforms,” the league mentioned in an announcement at the moment. “WNBA App month-to-month lively customers is up 613 p.c year-over-year, and League Move subscriptions greater than tripled within the first two weeks of the season with the very best common minutes watched in league historical past.”
I’d argue these numbers are larger than any participant statistic, which is why Clark and Reese ought to share the award.
(Picture of Caitlin Clark, left, and Angel Reese: Jeff Haynes / NBAE through Getty Photos)
