Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese leveled up women’s basketball to unprecedented heights in 2024.
The WNBA phenoms sold out arenas, broke jersey sale numbers, smashed TV viewing figures, and ripped up the record books at a relentless pace.
But Clark and Reese’s impact on women’s sports long proceeds their time in the pros.
An intense NCAA women’s national championship match-up between Iowa and LSU in 2023 saw Clark first become a household name.
It also put former Tigers standout Reese on the national map after she taunted Clark by gesturing to her ring finger to symbolize the championship ring she was about to receive for the 102-85 win.
Reese’s ‘you can’t see me’ motion was a seminal moment, not just in her personal rivalry with Clark, but women’s basketball as a whole.
It also invoked memories of legendary duo Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, who went head to head in college before transitioning to the NBA.
Magic recently appeared on Fox’s Speak where he was asked about the parallels between the Clark-Reese rivalry and his own with Larry Legend.
“I love the comparison [between him and Bird],” Johnson said.
“Because they dominated in college [as we both did].
“And then they bought it over to the WNBA. Just like we brought it to the NBA.
“We changed the NBA. They changed the WNBA.”
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Before Michael Jordan, there was Magic and Larry.
Their fierce rivalry — intense, but always respectful — was born in college during the 1979 national championship game between Bird’s Indiana State and Magic’s Michigan State, and lasted until Larry Legend retired in 1992.
For 10 years Bird and Magic dominated The Association.
‘The Hick from French Lick’ scooped up three championships, three MVPs, and two Finals MVPs in the ‘80s.
Magic, a member of the ‘Showtime’ Lakers alongside NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, hoovered up five titles, three MVPs, and three Finals MVPs during the same decade.
Their battles for basketball supremacy preceded Air Jordan’s ascendancy, rejuvenating the once great rivalry between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers and, in turn, the league itself following a period of stagnation in the 1970s.
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There’d be no MJ, Kobe, LeBron or Curry without Magic and Bird, and WNBA fans are hopeful Clark and Reese can blaze a similar trail for women’s basketball.
We’ve already seen their impact in less than a year after they were drafted.
The WNBA plans to commit $50 million over the next two years to provide full-time charter flight service for its teams during the season.
The new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is also set to be a game-changer, as the WNBPA — a trade union for the W’s players — will renegotiate the terms of their employment, including player salaries, and seek an ‘equity-based’ model which will see Clark, Reese, and every other players’ earnings skyrocket.
“Everything these young ladies have been fighting for, they’re about to get,” Magic went on.
“They end up getting private planes now.
“They’re going to get more money in terms of salary because of the new collective bargaining agreement.
“So it’s just amazing, the way they were able to go around arenas across the country, and sell them out, with little girls now dreaming about being like Caitlin, like Angel, and others.
“So it has been great to watch. It is fun, and now everybody wants a [WNBA] franchise.”
Clark and Reese have long been pitted against one another.
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They go way back, having squared off on the AAU circuit, but Clark insists they aren’t rivals in the traditional sense of the word.
“I don’t get that at all,” Clark said during her interview with Time Magazine after being named their 2024 Athlete of the Year.
“We’re not best friends, by any means, but we’re very respectful of one another.
“Yes, we have had tremendous battles. But when have I ever guarded her? And when has she guarded me.”
Clark and Reese both ultimately missed out on the ultimate prize last season, a WNBA championship, but will look to reach the promised land in their sophomore seasons, which tip off in May 2025.
Viral footage has already shown Clark in the lab working on her one weakness, while Reese is gearing up for new 3-vs-3 basketball league, Unrivaled, which is set to debut in Miami in January across an eight-week span.
The pioneering pair will then face of on May 17, when Clark’s Indiana Fever host Reese’s Chicago Sky in their opening game of the new WNBA season.