ESPN Swallows Pride With Caitlin Clark WNBA Award Selections
With the WNBA now in its final week of the 2024 regular season, ESPN released what's likely the final iteration of its WNBA 2024 awards tracker on Tuesday, which includes updated rankings for WNBA MVP, All-WNBA First Team, and various other awards.
ESPN has caught a lot of flak from Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark's passionate fanbase for some of their past rankings; most notably when they listed Clark as All-WNBA Second-Team instead of First-Team in an August 27 article and when they chose Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese over Clark for WNBA Rookie of the Year in an August 29 article.
Well ESPN has now rectified both controversial rankings, as their most recent piece has Clark as a unanimous Rookie of the Year and an All-WNBA First-Team honoree.
"Clark has had not just one of the best rookie years in WNBA history, but an outstanding season for a player of any level of WNBA experience," ESPN's Michael Voepel wrote. "She is averaging 19.5 points, a league-best 8.3 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals. She has set the WNBA single-season record for assists (329) and has helped the Fever make it back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
"Everything the Fever could have hoped for in picking Clark No. 1 -- including a gargantuan surge in attendance and merchandise sales -- has happened."
Voepel also added that some voters may still be inclined to vote for Reese over Clark for this prestigious award due to her shattering various rebounding and double-double records. But he then said, "This award should be a landslide for Clark."
The 22-year-old former Iowa Hawkeye was also a unanimous All-WNBA First-Team prediction from all three ESPN writers who contributed to the article. All three had unanimous WNBA MVP favorite A'ja Wilson, unanimous Defensive Player of the Year favorite Napheesa Collier, Liberty star forward Breanna Stewart, and Clark included in their All-WNBA First-Team list. Two writers added Sun standout Alyssa Thomas while the third included Minnesota Lynx sharpshooter Kayla McBride instead of Thomas.
A'ja Wilson (MVP), Caitlin Clark (ROY) and Cheryl Reeve (COY) are unanimous picks on our ballots. Here's why — and how ESPN’s writers will vote for the WNBA all-league first team and the rest of the end-of-season awards. https://t.co/wbrCqywDMW
— ESPN Women's Hoops (@ESPN_WomenHoop) September 17, 2024
While ESPN may have raised some eyebrows with previous award predictions (especially as they pertained to Clark), it seems like they got this most recent one right.
GRANT YOUNG
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.