Angel Reese’s WNBA Claims Undermined By Attendance Numbers

Getty Picture

Caitlin Clark’s arrival within the WNBA has seemingly induced each these in and outdoors of the game to lose their minds, as evidenced by each the way in which Clark has been handled by her friends and the way in which sports activities media has coated the story.

Clark’s former faculty rival Angel Reese was the newest to contribute to the collective delusion when she claimed that she, too, is a motive that individuals at the moment are tuning into the WNBA and never simply Caitlin Clark.

“Individuals are pulling as much as video games, we acquired celebrities coming to video games bought out arenas, like, simply due to one single sport,” Reese instructed reporters earlier this week.

“And simply taking a look at that, like, I’ll take that position. I’ll take the dangerous man position, and I’ll proceed to take that on and be that for my teammates, and if I need to be that and I do know I’ll go down in historical past, I’ll look again in 20 years and be like, ‘Yeah, the rationale why we’re watching girls’s basketball isn’t just due to one particular person.’ It’s due to me too, and I would like you to comprehend that.”

Reese’s claims are folks being attentive to the WNBA aren’t backed by the info, nonetheless, because the attendance of Caitlin Clark’s video games is completely dwarfing the league’s different video games.

As identified by a author at Sports activities Illustrated, Caitlin Clark video games over the weekend had 10,000-15,000 extra folks at them than non-Caitlin Clark video games.

Reese herself skilled that phenomenon: when her Chicago Sky performed the Los Angeles Sparks on Could 30, round 7,000 folks had been within the crowd. Two days later, when the Sky took on Clark’s Indiana Fever, the attendance was north of 17,000.

To this point throughout her rookie season within the WNBA, Reese, the seventh general decide within the WNBA Draft, is averaging 10.6 factors, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per sport. Clark, who was named Rookie of the Month for Could, is averaging 15.6 factors, 5.1 rebounds, and 6.4 assists per sport.