This past weekend, the WNBA kicked off its season. Saturday’s marquee matchup was between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky—essentially, a match between Fever’s Caitlin Clark and Sky’s Angel Reese. These two have been rivals since they played each other during their college careers. The WNBA is obviously pushing this matchup as a rivalry in hopes of raising viewership numbers and gaining popularity for the sport. It does look like over three million people watched the game—a record for a WNBA game on ESPN platforms. This is good news to start the season, but is the WNBA correct on what is attracting the viewers? 

Many in the sports media are not convinced. While there are several aspects to this rivalry, the most important being Angel Reese’s disdain for Caitlin Clark—some are pointing out from a sheer basketball standpoint, they’re uncertain this boost can continue. 

On Saturday, Reece and the Chicago Sky got crushed by the Indiana Fever, 93-58. A complete embarrassment to start the season. Clark, for her part, ended the game with a 20-10-10 triple-double. An amazing start to her second season. Reese on the other hand only scored 12 points, on 5-14 shooting attempts. She did however have 17 rebounds, which is a lot by any standard. The problem the WNBA may run into, if these games between Clark and Reese continue to be this lopsided, is that a rivalry narrative will die out. 

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Nick Wright, who is a co-host of "First Things First" on Fox Sports, had an interesting and now controversial take on the Clark-Reese match. He believes this rivalry could be great, but one of the players has to step up their game.

“Angel Reese needs to be better at basketball. I’m not talking about as a person, I’m not talking about as a podcaster, I’m not talking about at the Met GALA, she needs to be a better player if we want this rivalry to have some staying power. She had a very, very busy offseason, but at this moment it doesn't look like the offseason involved a lot of  Mikan drills of left-handed layups. Right now, Angel Reese, she is a wildly famous rebounder…I love the idea of this being a real rivalry, because they clearly don’t like each other, but both parties have to hold up their end of the bargain, as far as them both being awesome.” 

There was plenty of other controversy throughout this game. At one point, Clark fouled Angel Reese to stop an open layup. This was after Reese had clearly fouled a Fever player in her effort to get the rebound. The refs upgraded the Clark foul to a flagrant, when it was simply a common foul. The founder of Outkick, Clay Travis, had this to say: 

This Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark “controversy” is insane. Watch the play, Reese clearly fouls the other chick — pushing her in the back with both hands — to get the rebound. Clark points to it and then when the call isn’t made, fouls to stop the open layup.”

The WNBA is hopeful that this matchup can become a sustained rivalry that will push viewership and boost sponsorships—and maybe it will. But at some point, even if the players are heated and we have made for TV drama, a blowout like this will have folks turning the channel to watch something more interesting. Only time will tell. In the meantime, let’s just hope Caitlin Clark can make it through this season healthy. 

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