Sometimes, sports just make no sense, whatsoever.
(Just ask any New England Patriots fans about, oh say, the night of Feb. 3, 2008.)
Other times, sports make so much sense that you would think it’s scripted — like the WWE.
The intertwining tales of Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese firmly fall into that latter category.
Seriously, Clark versus Reese feels like someone wants to re-write the iconic rivalry of NBA legends Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, but for the WNBA and in 2024. The two have captured the attention of WNBA fans while igniting a newfound interest in the otherwise struggling league.
And the next — mighty impressive — chapter of this rivalry was written over Labor Day weekend, where Clark snapped a record streak and Reese broke a record.
Clark, as ESPN pointed out, helped end a rather ignominious streak for her historically putrid Fever.
The precocious Fever rookie posted 28 points and 12 assists in a Sunday win over the Dallas Wings. Scoring 28 points and dropping a dozen dimes is nothing to sneeze at, but Clark’s record had nothing to do with her personal accolades.
No, Clark’s performance (and the Fever win) catapulted Indiana to 17-16, one game over a .500 record.
Is Caitlin Clark the rookie of the year?
And that matters because the Fever haven’t been over .500 since before coronavirus was a common term.
Per ESPN, citing the Elias Sports Bureau, the Fever “had gone an WNBA-record 189 straight games without a winning record,” which accounts for a period of over five years.
Reese, meanwhile, set her own historic mark on Sunday, becoming the WNBA’s all-time single-season rebounding leader.
In Sunday’s tilt against the Minnesota Lynx, Reese tallied an impressive 17 points and 19 rebounds. Those 19 rebounds gave her 418 rebounds for the season — eclipsing the prior record of 404 rebounds in a single season, according to ESPN.
Just to get this out of the way: Both records, no matter how you slice them, are incredibly impressive.
A rookie dragging a moribund franchise beyond mediocrity and another rookie breaking (shattering, really) rebounding records is the stuff of scripts.
But beneath that shiny veneer also lays an uncomfortable truth: Clark has probably wrapped up a contentious rookie of the year competition after Sunday, and these records are reflective of why.
Throughout Clark’s record-setting rookie campaign, both she and her team have steadily improved to the point where the Fever are in the thick of a hunt for a playoff spot.
In other words, Clark’s eye-popping statistical totals are coming in the context of her team winning.
Reese, meanwhile, has been putting up “empty calorie” stats.
Sure, the outspoken Chicago rookie may have a rebounding nose and motor for the ages, but her team keeps losing.
The Fever have reached 17-16 by winning eight of its last 10 games. The Sky, meanwhile, have plummeted to an 11-21 record, having lost eight of its last 10 games.
(The Fever next play Wednesday when they host the L.A. Sparks, while the Sky play Tuesday in a road tilt against the Las Vegas Aces.)
The Fever and Sky are two teams headed in diametrically opposed directions, despite (in spite?) of their star rookie’s history-making performances.
And that matters.
Fair or not, reputations are being cultivated in real-time that Clark puts up eye-popping stats within the flow of a team gameplan, while Reese all but demolishes her team’s offensive sets, so she can collect handfuls of offensive rebounds at a time.
Given those budding reputations, of course Sunday’s slate of WNBA games went the way they did.
Both Clark and Reese are clearly talented enough to keep setting records.
You just wouldn’t be able to tell that for one of the candidates if you look at her team’s record.
