Since their respective college careers, the rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese has been one of the biggest topics in women’s basketball. TV ratings and ticket sales have soared for Indiana Fever vs. Chicago Sky games as two of the top names in the WNBA square off.
It’s also led to passionate fan bases for both players. As for the discussion around the two players, former First Lady Michelle Obama discussed the role social media plays in the rivalry.
During an appearance on All The Smoke, Obama said it’s difficult to avoid some of the extreme posts about both players. Of course, it’s not unique to the WNBA. Players across pro sports have spoken about DMs and posts they’ve received about their performances. That, Obama said, is an amplifier.
“I think the tough thing is the social media element to it, but that’s true across the board,” Obama said. “We’ve talked about this on our show. It just takes a normal occurrence – these young kids today, what they have to go through, what they have to be able to withstand because social media’s such a huge part of their world. There’s the hate, but now the hate is in your room, on your phone with you all the time. And you can’t, for whatever reason, tell these kids to turn it off because they’re making their living that way. They now are expected to stay engaged. So I think that makes it feel even worse.
“But as you point out, that’s happening in sports across gender. It’s just harder now to withstand other people’s horrible, horrible opinions.”
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese became household names at Iowa and LSU, respectively. They squared off in the 2023 national championship, which Reese and the Tigers won. The duo then went in the same WNBA Draft as the Fever took Clark No. 1 overall and the Sky drafted Reese at No. 7.
Since their arrival in the W, Fever vs. Sky games have become a major attraction. During the 2024 WNBA season, networks set new viewership records in games featuring the Fever. The Sky vs. Fever game on CBS stood as its most-watched game of the year, while the Fever’s game against the Seattle Storm brought in 2.23 million viewers on ABC to set the high-water mark on that network. Indiana also played in the most-watched WNBA game ever on ESPN2 as 2.12 million tuned in against the Connecticut Sun.
Clark and Reese both dealt with injuries during the last matchup between their two teams. It brought in the lowest viewership for a Sky vs. Fever game in the last two years, though it was still slightly above average for Indiana games this year, according to Front Office Sports.
