During a recent episode of OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich,” Dakich asked me, “What will be the biggest storyline in the WNBA this season, and will it have anything to do with basketball?”
The second part was easy. No.
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ANGEL REESE’S WNBA FINALS SHOWED HOW CRITICISM OF HER PLAY BECOMES AN ACCUSATION OF RACISM
And believe me, I care. I just spent over two weeks flying between San Francisco and Atlanta to cover the WNBA Finals. Who won was almost beside the point for me. I was there to ask why both teams were leaving the court before the national anthem and to hear what the players, coaches and the league had to say about it.
In July, ESPN’s Chiney Ogwumike went on “First Take” and called for a reset in how the media covers Caitlin Clark and the WNBA. “In my opinion, we should be giving airtime to the beautiful basketball being played in the 30th year of the WNBA,” she said.
As for that beautiful basketball, are you sure that’s where you want our attention?
OK, let’s talk about the basketball
Gabby Williams and Angel Reese entered Game 7 as co-favorites to win WNBA Finals MVP. Through six games, the two had combined to shoot 34.4% from the field. For context, the lowest field goal percentage ever recorded by an NBA Finals MVP was Kobe Bryant’s 40.5% in 2010.
At halftime of Game 7, Atlanta led 30–24. That’s 54 points on 31.8% shooting between the two teams. Reese and Williams combined for seven points on 3-for-8 shooting, with five from Reese and two from Williams.
WHY ISN’T ANGEL REESE HELD TO THE CAITLIN CLARK STANDARD WHEN FANS ATTACK HER TEAMMATES?
Then Williams scored 28 points in the second half as Golden State beat Atlanta 68–63 to win its first WNBA championship. She hit the go-ahead three with under three minutes left, finished with 30 points and four blocks, and deserved the trophy. She also shot 32.6% for the series, the lowest field goal percentage by a WNBA Finals MVP.
Reese shot 40.5% from the field in the Finals, including 41.8% in the paint. She missed 28 of her 53 layups. She averaged nearly 13 rebounds, which is one reason you keep her on the floor. You’d still like your 6-foot-4 forward to make a few more shots around the basket.
Is that the basketball that you want us to talk more about, WNBA media?
Drama sells in the WNBA
After Game 3, Reese taunted Golden State with the “too small” gesture, then smiled and waved as the Valkyries walked off the court. She’d just put up 21 points and 12 rebounds, Atlanta was up 2–1, and Reese claimed that she was getting inside the Valkyries’ heads.
She proceeded to shoot 4-for-20 over the next two games and started complaining about the officiating. By Game 6, the player who’d called Golden State too small was one loss from going home.
We’d seen this with Reese before. In the closing moments of the 2023 national championship game, Angel Reese followed Caitlin Clark around the court, taunting her with the “you can’t see me” gesture and pointing to her ring finger. A year later, 12.3 million people watched Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes eliminate Reese’s LSU Tigers in the Elite Eight.
This August, Clark’s Fever and Reese’s Dream drew 2.6 million viewers, ESPN’s biggest WNBA audience ever. Clark is the biggest draw in women’s basketball. Put Reese on the other side and you’ve got a rivalry people have been arguing about since they were in college.
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The WNBA reported 3.3 million viewers for Game 7. That’s a great number for the league (although it deserves the context that I provided in a recent column). If you tuned in to root against Angel Reese, you still got to watch Gabby Williams take over a championship game.
If you want more people to watch, quit telling them what they’re supposed to care about.
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