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The WNBA named Caitlin Clark the league’s Rookie of the 12 months for 2024, however it wasn’t a unanimous choice.
Even supposing Clark broke the WNBA’s single-season help document, rookie scoring document and have become the primary rookie in historical past to document a triple-double, solely 66 of the 67 voters selected her to win the award. The opposite voter selected Chicago Sky rookie and Clark’s longtime rival Angel Reese.
Reese was a darkish horse contender for the award behind Clark for the primary few months of the season. Nonetheless, her rookie marketing campaign was reduce quick after having season-ending surgical procedure for her wrist after struggling an damage on Sept. 6.
Clark widened her lead in practically each statistical class within the weeks previous to and after Reese’s season ended. On high of that, she led the Indiana Fever to the playoffs for the primary time in eight years because the group’s main scorer.
Reese was solely the third-leading scorer on a Chicago Sky group that completed the season with a 13-27 document, the third-worst within the league, and missed the playoffs for the primary time since 2018.
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Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky look on through the sport on June 1, 2024, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Jeff Haynes/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs)
The one statistic the place Reese held an edge over Clark was when it comes to rebounds, with greater than twice as many rebounds per sport at 13.1, in comparison with Clark’s 5.7. Reese has a pure top benefit at 6-foot-3, in comparison with Clark at 6-foot-0.
However Clark held benefits when it comes to factors with 19.2 to Reese’s 13.6 per sport, assists with 8.4 to Reese’s 1.9 and even blocks with 0.7 to Reese’s 0.5, regardless of the peak drawback.
Like Clark, Reese additionally broke a landmark WNBA single-season document throughout her rookie yr, breaking the single-season document for rebounds throughout a sport in opposition to the Minnesota Lynx on Sept. 2 with 418 on the yr. However not like Clark, Reese didn’t maintain that document by the tip of the season. After Reese’s season-ending surgical procedure, MVP A’ja Wilson broke Reese’s document within the ultimate week of the season, when Wilson recorded her 419th rebound.
Nonetheless, regardless of the statistical discrepancies between Clark and Reese, the Sky rookie had her passionate supporters this yr who argued her case over Clark.
Former NBA All-Star Joakim Noah, who was a 6-foot-11 middle who additionally specialised in rebounding and dominating within the paint, informed Fox Information Digital that he would vote for Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese over Clark for Rookie of the 12 months if he had a say, throughout an interview at NBA Evening on the Emirates Suite on the U.S. Open in early September.
INSIDE CAITLIN CLARK AND ANGEL REESE’S IMPACT ON MEN’S BASKETBALL
Aug. 25, 2024; Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Sky ahead Angel Reese (5) walks on the court docket through the first half at Wintrust Area. (Kamil Krzaczynski-USA At the moment Sports activities)
“I’d say Angel Reese,” Noah mentioned. “After I take a look at her play, she jogs my memory a number of myself.”
In head-to-head matchups this yr, the Fever beat the Sky three out of 4 instances. In two of these matchups, Reese put up extra factors than Clark whereas placing up extra rebounds than Clark in all 4 conferences. Clark put up extra assists in all 4 conferences.
Reese’s top benefit over Clark has resulted within the Sky rookie having stronger finishes within the paint, and some very bodily blocks and block makes an attempt. Some cases have additionally resulted in some arduous fouls being known as in opposition to Reese for her protection on Clark. In a sport on June 16, Clark was moving into for a layup, and Reese didn’t fairly have the wingspan to dam the shot, however bought a flagrant 1 when she hit Clark within the head from above as an alternative.
Reese’s popularity and persona, in comparison with Clark, have additionally garnered a passionate following, albeit a smaller one than Clark’s when accounting for attendance and TV viewership figures.
Rutgers freshman males’s basketball participant Ace Bailey, the No. 3-ranked recruit within the nation this yr, informed Fox Information Digital at his group’s media day on Sept. 24 that he would select to pursue Reese for recommendation as an alternative of Clark if he may solely discuss to at least one massive girls’s basketball star.
“I’d most likely discuss to Angel Reese, her competitiveness for certain, what retains her driving,” Bailey mentioned.
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Angel Reese of the LSU Woman Tigers reacts towards Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes through the fourth quarter through the 2023 NCAA Ladies’s Basketball Event championship sport at American Airways Heart on April 2, 2023, in Dallas, Texas. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Photographs)
Reese’s and Clark’s reputations, fan bases and longstanding rivalry have been tied to their respective races relationship again to their most well-known assembly within the 2023 NCAA girls’s nationwide championship sport. Reese and LSU defeated Clark and Iowa, and Reese pointed to her finger to boast in a viral second that garnered intense backlash and assist.
Reese mentioned it was a second that “modified her life ceaselessly,” through the first episode of her podcast “Unapolagetically Angel” when she accused Clark’s followers of racism, demise threats and even sending express AI photos of her to her relations.
“I believe it is actually simply the followers, her followers, the Iowa followers, now the Indiana followers, which might be actually simply, they experience for her, and I respect that, respectfully. However typically it’s totally disrespectful. I believe there’s a number of racism in relation to it,” Reese mentioned.
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