Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark was named the unanimous 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year, ending a season-long competition against Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese.
Clark led her team with 19.2 points per game and the entire WNBA in both assists per game and three-pointers made in a historic rookie season.
Both players publically admitted how little the award chase – primarily highlighted by the media as opposed to Reese or Clark – mattered to them.
“We don’t either care about the Rookie of the Year but you guys, I think you guys have made the big thing. We haven’t,” Reese told reporters in late August. “We both want to win.”
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“We’ve been wanting to win and that’s what we’ve done in our collegiate career,” she continued. “We played against each other last year and the year before in the March Madness tournament. So we’re just trying to do whatever it takes to win. That’s what’s important right now.”
Reese was a mainstay in the Rookie of the Year race until she elected to have surgery on her injured wrist in early September. She averaged 13.6 points, and 13.1 rebounds per game for the Sky.
Reese grabbed her 418th rebound of the season against the Minnesota Lynx to set the league’s single-season record. 2024 WNBA MVP A’Ja Wilson would break the mark following Reese’s injury.
Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever drives to the basket during the game against the Connecticut Sun during round one game one of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs© Getty Images
The Sky rookie’s sentiment was echoed by Clark: “You don’t wake up and think about individual awards,” she said in late August. “I know that’s what all of you think we do. I know we don’t. That’s what everybody wants to make this about.”
“Both of our teams are competing for playoff spots, that’s our main focus. That’s a selfish thing to just care about an individual award. And she would give you the same exact answer. I’m sure she has given you the same exact answer.”
Reese also admitted she was happy to even be in the Rookie of the Year race after being selected seventh overall: “My whole thing was like, when I got drafted No. 7,” she said on her podcast “Unapologetically Angel.”
“So I’m like, cool, the pressure is not even on me because I’m drafted seven, so the pressure shouldn’t be up there.”
Clark struggled on Sunday in her playoff debut against the Connecticut Sun, going 4/17 from the field and scoring just 11 points in a 93-69 loss. The Fever must win on the road this Wednesday to have a force a decisive game three back at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indiana.
The Chicago Sky tumbled down the standings following Reese’s injury, losing eight of their last 10 games to finish as the league’s ninth-seed.
