WNBA Isn’t Shying Away from Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese Rivalry With 2025 Schedule
There was a lot to be excited about surrounding the WNBA's 2025 schedule release.
Many of the league's teams got extremely creative with their announcements, which included the Minnesota Lynx shading the New York Liberty and Indiana Fever, and the Dallas Wings recruiting popular food critic Keith Lee for the reveal. Not to mention other marquee events were presented like the Fever facing off with coach Stephanie White's former team the Connecticut Sun in Boston.
But it was one aspect of the schedule that immediately stood out to almost all fans, both when and how many times Caitlin Clark's Fever are set to go head-to-head with Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky. The two squads don't just open their respective seasons against one another, they meet five times. That is the most matchups with any opponent on either's schedule.
The WNBA schedule release proved the league sees Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese as a rivalry! pic.twitter.com/tmKShuag8l
— Robin Lundberg (@robinlundberg) December 2, 2024
This really should come as no surprise, as meetings between Clark and Reese obviously generate a ton of excitement. The Fever regularly drew the biggest ratings and highest attendance in the league but interest was even higher against the Sky, with the two most watched regular season games being between those teams.
Plus, commissioner Cathy Engelbert did not shy away from promoting the rivalry, even if her comments on it were met with some backlash from the league's players. In answering a question from CNBC regarding Clark and Reese fans taking things to an uncomfortable level, Engelbert leaned into the attention.
"Well the one thing that's great about the league right now, we do sit at this intersection of culture, and sports, and fashion, and music. Like, the WNBA players are really looked at now as kind of cultural icons," Engelbert said.
"And when you have that, you have a lot of attention on you. There's no more apathy. Everybody cares. It is a little bit of that Bird-Magic moment if you recall, from 1979," Engelbert added. "When those two rookies came in from a big college rivalry, one white, one black. And so we have that moment with these two.
"But the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry," Engelbert added. "That's what makes people watch, They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don't want everybody being nice to one another."
Engelbert later went on to express regret that she brushed off the ugly undertones the initial query was about, but her feelings on what Clark and Reese could mean for the WNBA were extremely clear. And were backed up once again by the structure of the 2025 schedule.
Cathy is insane for scheduling sky fever like five times 😭😭
— Mehmet Okurrrt (@Natural_OneDurr) December 2, 2024
Both players of course have been asked about each other ad nauseam and were compared throughout their rookie seasons before Clark clearly distanced herself from Reese and the rest of the competition.
Still, that hasn't stopped the topic from being broached again even in the offseason. Angel just recently touched on the subject in an eloquent fashion, while Clark has previously offered nothing but compliments when asked to discuss Reese and her other peers.
But it looks like the league is looking for more of what it saw from Clark on "Barbie Night" in Chicago last season. Because it is clear the Sky and Fever is what they think fans want to see.
the last time caitlin clark played against the sky, she had wiiiings pic.twitter.com/8FLaL8N3a9
— cc akgae (@clrkszn) December 2, 2024
Robin Lundberg is a media veteran and hoops head who has spent the bulk of his career with iconic brands like Sports Illustrated and ESPN. His insights have also been featured on platforms such as Fox and CNN and he can currently be heard hosting shows for Sirius XM and on his burgeoning YouTube show. And now he brings his basketball expertise to Women's Fastbreak on SI!