Caitlin Clark Fouls Angel Reese
Fandom and the WNBA's most famous (but pointless?) rivalry
The first “BIG” moment of the WNBA season was a foul committed by Caitlin Clark to stop an Angel Reese layup. It’s a moment made for media (traditional and social) to begin the WNBA’s second season with Caitlin Clark.
The WNBA and women’s sports have been a major story for several years. As someone fascinated with fandom, I am especially intrigued. I think that the media gets the story wrong, and the analyses of the W’s prospects are usually hopelessly simplistic and flawed. The one thing the media gets right is that Caitlin Clark is the league’s most significant personality.
However, while Clark is clearly the league’s biggest draw, her unofficial anointment as the league's face has been controversial. Clark has the attention and endorsements, but she doesn’t have the hardware and awards. It’s a recipe for resentment. It’s also an interesting question whether Clark’s outsized stardom is sustainable without MVPs and titles.
Another fascinating aspect of Clark’s career has been the media and marketing efforts to create rivalry (an updated Magic and Bird). The rivalry began in college when Clark’s Iowa team took on Angel Reese and LSU in the Women’s basketball tournament, and given the attention paid to a single semi-hard foul, it shows no signs of fading.
Today's post is a quick look at Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese fandom as of 2025. The future of women’s basketball and the WNBA is a complicated, multidimensional topic that is beyond a simple blog post. But, Caitlin Clark and her rivals will be major factors in the sport and the league’s future.
The Data
The data is from the Next Generation Fandom Survey and was collected about a month before the WNBA season began. For all the data below, super fandom is based on the percentage of each segment rating the athlete a seven on a 7-point fandom scale, and Hater is based on ratings of one on the scale. Details on the survey follow the article.
Four figures are provided. The first figure shows the fandom levels for the entire 1610-person sample. The second figure shows fandom rates across the four major sports consuming generations. The third figure is fandom across genders. The fourth figure shows the fandom rates for the subsample of WNBA Super Fans (7.7% of the overall sample). I’ve included one quick bullet point after each figure.
Caitlin Clark is more beloved and less hated. Clark’s fandom rate is 11.9% compared to Reese’s 7.5%. Clark’s anti-fandom (hater) rate is 10.6% versus Reese’s rate of 13.5%. Clark has about 60% more fans than Reese and 25% fewer haters (anti-fans).
Clark and Reese score dramatically different across the generations. Clark scores over a 10% super fan rate with each generation and peaks with the Baby Boomers at 15%. Reese peaks with Millennials at 11% and performs worst with Baby Boomers at 4.7%. Clark’s fandom grows as consumers age, while Reese’s shrinks.
Fandom ratings across the genders defy conventional wisdom. Clark and Reese both perform better with males by significant margins. Reese has more than twice as many male super fans as female super fans.
Both Clark and Reese score the strongest with WNBA Super Fans. Clark leads Reese with a 46.0% fandom rate compared to Reese’s 38.7%. The
Quick Thoughts
Understanding Caitlin Clark’s appeal is probably the key to the WNBA's near-term success. Frankly, I don’t think most of the league and the commentators understand the Clark phenomenon. They are mostly obsessed that other athletes (A’ja Wilson, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, etc.) don’t receive equal attention. The mistake these folks make is a misreading of Clark’s appeal. She is a unique and visually appealing player, but fundamentally, she is a celebrity who plays basketball. She didn’t ask to be a celebrity, it just sort of happened, but she is famous mainly because she is the most famous women's player.
A few other thoughts…
The rivalry with Reese probably isn’t helpful. The data suggests that Reese is the natural villain in the relationship, but Reese also seems to be more embraced by the league. Treating her like the “bad boy” Pistons or Draymond Green probably isn’t viable. The rivalry itself may have lost its meaning post-college. Magic and Bird were rivals because they dominated the league while playing for the two most prominent brands. The Clark-Reese WNBA rivalry is a nonstarter until the Sky and Fever become perennial contenders.
The data does not support much of the narrative surrounding the WNBA. In particular, both athletes have more male than female fans. This is an important finding as it suggests that the narrative around Women’s basketball is incomplete. Fandom is driven more by “sport” and “fame” than “gender.”
The demographic data presents a dilemma as Clark scores highest with the oldest segments. Gen X and the Baby Boomers are unlikely to be the core WNBA audience, but they are major population segments who boost Clark’s pop culture appeal.
Clark’s incredibly low anti-fandom rate in the WNBA segment is also narrative-defying. Clark has been controversial within the WNBA (Olympics snub, Chennedy Carter incident, Sheryl Swoopes comments, etc.), but very few WNBA fans dislike Clark. The league and its media partners need to fully embrace Clark.
The Next Generation Fandom Survey
The 2025 installment is the fifth edition of the Next Generation Fandom Survey. The Next Generation Fandom survey is an annual look at the state of sports, entertainment, and cultural fandom in the United States. The survey began during my tenure as the Emory Marketing Analytics Center Director. The study aims to measure the current state of fandom across a wide range of sports and other cultural categories and to collect data on the factors that underlie fandom. The 2025 Survey includes responses from over 1600 individuals split nearly evenly across the four primary generations: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. The sample is also split evenly across genders and is racially representative. Data collection occurred from March 13, 2025, to April 2, 2025.