It might take fans a minute to get used to the notion of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese as teammates.
Not teammates on the same WNBA team, but maybe in the All-Star Game. As of the league’s first All-Star voting update, they stood a good shot of playing together on Team WNBA against Team USA.
Clark was asked about the likelihood on Sunday, June 23 before her Indiana Fever played Reese’s Chicago Sky.
“A lot of hypotheticals,” Clark said. “I think both of us would probably tell you our focus is on playing basketball, and if that works out for the both of us, great, that would be a lot of fun — we’ve never played together. I suppose I don’t really know what all goes into how they select the All-Star team — I’m new to the league. I know fan voting is part of it, but there’s also other criteria, it’s not just fan vote. She’s had a tremendous season, and if that was to happen, I’m sure people would adore it.”
The Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson was the primary vote-getter in the first update, but she’s already playing for Team USA. Clark came in second with her Fever colleague Aliyah Boston a distant third. Reese placed seventh, but with three Team USA competitors ahead of her, including Wilson.
Fan voting accounts for 50% of the All-Star selection procedure, with player and media voting splitting the other half. The top-10 vote-getters will make the All-Star team, excluding the athletes already on Team USA.
The All-Star Game will take place July 20 in Phoenix. Team USA will head to London after that to face the German National Team on July 23 before commencing their Olympic schedule in Paris on July 29 against Japan.
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese Are Both Having All-Star Seasons
Aside from being the two biggest draws in the WNBA right now, Clark and Reese are also the apparent frontrunners for WNBA Rookie of the Year.
Clark has been filling the stat sheet from the start of the season, averaging 16.3 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game as of June 24. In the Fever’s 88-87 loss to the Sky on Sunday, she set the Fever’s single-game assist record with 13 while shooting 55% from three — a career-best through 18 games.
Reese, meanwhile, had arguably the finest game of her young career on Sunday as well. Her 25 points and 16 rebounds marked her eighth-consecutive double-double and she did her work on 8-12 shooting. That might not sound like much for someone who operates in the post, but the major knock against Reese so far has been her inefficiency. She’s now shooting 51% over her past six contests.
Clark and Reese Together Could Make All-Star Game Ratings History
It’s no secret that Clark and Reese are humongous TV attractions. Their second matchup of the season, a 91-83 Fever victory on Father’s Day, was the most-watched WNBA game in 23 years, averaging 2.25 million viewers.
When the two met in the 2023 National Championship game with Clark at Iowa and Reese at LSU, 9.9 million people tuned in, making it the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever.
Until the next year, when the two teams met in the Elite Eight. 12.3 million people tuned into that one as the Hawkeyes avenged their defeat to the Tigers to advance to the Final Four. With Clark still playing, Iowa broke that same record two more times, attracting 14.2 million viewers against UConn in the national semifinals and 18.89 million against South Carolina in the championship game.
Compare that to the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game, which was also historic. It was the most-watched WNBA All-Star Game in 16 years, but that still amounted to only 995,000 viewers. With or without Clark and Reese, the 2024 game will almost undoubtedly top that mark. Put them on the same team and there’s no telling how many will tune in.
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