ESPN Rating Angel Reese As Top WNBA Rookie Over Caitlin Clark Is Contrarian Clickbait At Its Finest

Matt Fitzgerald·
CULTURESPORTS
·
Caitlin Clark
SPP Sport Press Photo. /Alamy Live News

This past weekend I suggested Angel Reese find a brick-laying side hustle because of how often she fails at the primary objective of basketball, which is to get the ball in the hoop. Instead, she’s starting a podcast to “clear the false narratives.” One narrative that isn’t false: She’s not anywhere near the basketball player Caitlin Clark is, but that won’t stop people from pretending she is for rage-baiting engagement.

Many of Reese’s attempts come from close range, whereas Indiana Fever singular sensation Caitlin Clark can knock down shots from anywhere within the hardwood zip code and probably beyond. That alone sets them in vastly different skill level categories. The only thing Reese can do better is rebound because of her superior size.

Clark has beat back the notion that she isn’t athletic enough and can’t be a distributor at the WNBA level. In fact, she’s leading the league in assists, and leading a furious Fever rally from a 1-8 start to a 15-16 record entering Friday night’s showdown with Reese’s 11-19 Chicago Sky squad.

As the seventh overall pick in this year’s draft, Reese was going to a far better situation than Clark. Her team is way worse. To me, that is the textbook definition of “better” or “more valuable” to one’s team. Somehow, ESPN is arguing that Reese is the superior player to Clark with some gaslighting, skewed statistical bullsh*t.

I won’t even dignify explaining why ESPN manipulated the rankings this way. Something about net rating when Reese is on and off the court compared to Clark, which really is just a reflection of Indiana’s roster.

I’m disappointed to see one of the four-letter network’s most prominent personalities, alleged basketball expert Stephen A. Smith, propping up this tired storyline.

Wanna see something that will either legit laugh or loud or make your brain spontaneously explode Scanners-style?

Look how much of an outlier Reese is — not in a good way — when it comes to making shots within five feet of the rim. GTFOH with any other stats. Another alleged false narrative Reese will struggle to beat is following up her own misses to inflate her offensive rebound numbers.

No one is denying that Reese is an elite rebounder. I’ve literally never written otherwise. But it’s just weird that this one attribute is so fixated upon as a means to leverage her above Clark, who does every conceivable, important other thing on a basketball court way better than she does.

Like what are we doing here, ESPN? When, say, superstar players who are vying for the NFL MVP award go head-to-head, you give the winner the tiebreaker nod in the race. That happened when Lamar Jackson and the Ravens eviscerated Brock Purdy’s 49ers and Tua Tagovailoa’s Dolphins in consecutive weeks. Tua and Purdy were squarely in the MVP conversation. Lamar got those two wins, and earned his second MVP.

The Fever defeated the Sky in this season’s first two matchups. Can we all agree that if Clark beats Reese in three out of four tonight that the debate can end? I don’t know what else it’ll take at this point. I can’t even find a sportsbook that still lists WNBA Rookie of the Year odds, because Clark has pretty much slammed the door on Reese’s candidacy. As of a couple days ago at BetMGM, they were laughable:

ESPN doesn’t need to stoop this low just to be contrarian and manufacture interest in a nonexistent awards race. Or maybe they just figure it’ll create a conversation, even if it’s a nonsensical one, and drive interest and clicks to their various platforms just by baiting people with pro-Reese content. It’s so flagrant at this point LOL.

In the meantime, Caitlin Clark will continue establishing herself as a league MVP candidate, and smashing records that don’t have to do with one statistical category.

And before you get butthurt about turnovers, just bear in mind that Clark is the engine that makes the Fever offense go every single minute she’s on the court. Again, Indiana was drafting first overall for a reason. Not all the giveaways are her fault — what a shocker!

OK moving on.

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