White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre was one of the 20,711 spectators who attended the game between the Washington Mystics and the Indiana Fever in Washington on Thursday. There was excitement until the last second and the locals won by one point (92-91), but the result was the least important. The game, which closed the regular season, goes down in the history of women’s basketball as the game with the highest attendance in the WNBA. That record has a name of its own: Caitlin Clark, the Fever’s rookie guard, number one in the last draftwho has revolutionized the league with his records, his talent and his charisma. If that weren’t enough, he also has his nemesis, Angel Reese, another exceptional rookie, who leads many to compare the current situation with the simultaneous debut of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the NBA in 1980.
Both times Clark’s team has played in Washington this year, the crowds have exceeded 20,000. Both times, the team has abandoned its usual 4,200-seat arena to play at the home of the Wizards, the NBA team. The same has been true wherever Clark has gone. Television ratings have also soared, a repeat of what happened in college basketball when Clark was in Iowa. The WNBA has its big chance.
Inside Capital One Arena on Thursday, hundreds of fans were seen wearing Clark’s number 22, either on jerseys from the University of Iowa or Indiana. Every time the guard shot a basket, a shiver ran through the stands, followed by an explosion of joy on the few times she made a basket (she finished the game with 8 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds in 20 minutes of play).
Caitlin Clark is the rookie with the most points scored (769) and three-pointers made (122) this season, among other marks. She also became the first rookie to record a triple-double (more than 10 points, rebounds and assists in a single game). In fact, she has two.
With her 122 three-pointers, she became the second player, rookie or not, with the most three-pointers in a regular season. The two she made on Thursday helped her surpass the best annual mark from the three-point line held by Diana Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer. After Clark’s college records, Taurasi challenged the guard to prove herself against real women and not 18-year-old students. Boy, did she. Caitlin Clark has not only broken those and many other rookie records, but also some absolute ones, such as assists in a single game (19) and also total assists for the entire season (337).
Despite starting the league with eight losses in the first nine games, the runner-up has managed to guide his team to the playoffsending the second-longest playoff drought in WNBA history. Indiana had not played in the postseason since 2016. This time, they finished sixth out of 12 teams in the competition, with a record of 20 wins and 20 losses. The Fever will face the Connecticut Sun in the first round in a best-of-three game starting this Sunday, with the first two games away from home. Since the best-of-three format was adopted, no team with a lower position in the standings has won in the first round.
Adam Hunger (AP)
Clark hasn’t been alone. Chicago Sun power forward Angel Reese has also set new league records for single-season rebounds (446), offensive rebounds (172) and overall rebounding average (13.1). The first of those records was short-lived, however, as she injured her wrist and said goodbye to the season early while Aja’a Wilson, the favorite for player of the year, broke her rebounding mark.
Reese became the first rookie with a double-double in the All-Star Game, and the first WNBA player to record consecutive games of 20 or more rebounds, while her 24 double-doubles broke the league rookie record.
Clark and Reese have had a strong college rivalry. Both players are 22 years old and have been stars since their arrival in the league, but the contrast between them is like night and day. One is white and the other is black; one is modest and the other is loud; one has a conventional physique and the other is powerful; one plays on the perimeter and the other, under the rim. The rivalry has taken on racist overtones from some fans, setting off some alarm bells in the league.
The Fever guard is the clear favorite for the rookie of the year award. The big winner of the rivalry, however, is the WNBA and, with it, women’s basketball.
The qualifiers begin
The WNBA had 12 teams in the regular season this year. Although they are distributed in two conferences, they qualified for the playoffsthe eight teams with the best record of victories and losses. Finally, there will be four teams from the Eastern Conference and another four from the East in the postseason.
New York Liberty, first in the regular season, will face the Atlanta Dream, eighth thanks to their victory on Thursday. Minnesota Lynx, second, will face Phoenix Mercury, seventh. Connecticut Sun, third, will host Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever, while the current champions, fourth in the regular season, will face Seattle Storm. All the playoffs begin this Sunday. In the first round, the best of three games are played, with the peculiarity that the first two are on the court of the team with home court advantage. If they win, the playoffs do not travel to the other team’s city.
The semi-finals will be played in a best-of-five format (from 29 September to 8 October), as will the final, which starts on 10 October and will last until 20 October at the latest.
