Over the past couple of seasons, there has been a massive increase in popularity and viewership in women’s basketball and it is greatly due to two women: Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. The two faced off in the 2023 College National Championship to massive viewership as Reese’s LSU Tigers took down Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes.
Those numbers were topped when the rematch occurred in the 2024 Elite Eight, but this time it was Clark and Iowa sending Reese and LSU home. Now in the WNBA, the two continue to bring eyeballs as a recent meeting between Clark and the Indiana Fever and Reese and the Chicago Sky became the highest viewed WNBA game in 23 years. And a rivalry, similar to that between Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson and Boston Celtics Legend Larry Bird, seems to have formed.
And that isn’t lost on Magic himself, who recently took to social media to say that the impact of Reese and Clark very much reminds him of the impact that he and Bird had on the NBA back in the 1980s:
When I think about Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s impact on the game, they remind me a lot of Larry Bird and me. Our first meeting, Indiana State vs. Michigan State, in the NCAA Championship set the all-time viewership record for men’s basketball. Caitlin and Angel’s 2023 NCAA…
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) June 24, 2024
The popularity of Magic and Bird and the rivalry that formed is what ultimately led to the NBA broadcasting the NBA Finals live instead of on tape delay as had been done previously. That popularity was then built on by the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Stephen Curry into what we all know today.
The similarities are certainly there. Reese, like Johnson, is more outspoken and flamboyant with plenty of off-court success in addition to being extremely competitive and fiery on the court. Clark is more quiet and soft-spoken publicly, but, like Bird, is known as just as fierce of a competitor and not afraid to engage in trash talk as well.
Who knows if this rivalry will continue to grow as it has so far. Unfortunately, the Fever and Sky don’t have the history that the Lakers and Celtics did to prop up Magic and Bird even more. But Reese and Clark are changing the game and bringing more eyes to women’s basketball, which is a great thing overall.
Lakers legend Magic Johnson offers advice to Caitlin Clark
This isn’t the first time Magic Johnson has spoken about Caitlin Clark as the Lakers legend was also an extremely popular first overall pick who came into the league with a lot of popularity and pressure on him.
Johnson offered some advice to Clark, saying that the WNBA veterans are going to test her much like he was in the NBA, but she can’t back down and must let them know she won’t be pushed around. Magic added that she isn’t the best player in the WNBA just like he and Larry Bird weren’t when they first joined the NBA, but she has the talent to ascend to that point.
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