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Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are undoubtedly a big part of the rise in popularity of women's basketball and the WNBA. The two rookies battled in college against each other in a national title game in 2023 and an Elite Eight game in 2024, setting the stage for their WNBA arrival. And former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson believe that the attention surrounding Clark and Reese is similar to that of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson several decades ago.
Like Clark and Reese, Bird and Johnson faced off against each other in a high-profile college game. Their 1979 national championship showdown attracted unprecedented attention, as 40 million people watched Johnson's Michigan State Spartans defeat Bird's Indiana State Sycamores. Bird and Johnson immediately capitalized on their stardom by jumping to the NBA, which experienced s surge in popularity as a result of its uber-popular white superstar and uber-popular Black superstar.
“This Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese thing kind of reminds me a little bit of the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird,” Barnes said on ‘ATS Unplugged.' “A black star, a white star. If you remember, they say Magic and Bird saved basketball. That was the 34th year of the NBA. With all the greatness that's happened in the prior 27 years in the WNBA, some people are saying Caitlin Clark and Reese are kind of a new iteration of that. … And again, although they've had a lot of greatness that's come before these ladies, these ladies are bringing the eyeballs and the attention that are going to make this game come to the next level.”
Jackson concurred, expanding on the racial divide among fans that happened with Bird and Johnson and appears to be happening again with Clark and Reese.
“You hit it on the nose with the Larry Bird-Magic comparison,” Jackson said. “I think they’re dealing with a lot of stuff that Magic and Larry dealt with. People made Larry and Magic seem like it was racial between them but it wasn’t Larry and Magic. They loved each other, but everybody on the outside with their own opinion, they had to pick a side, and they made it racial. And I think both of these young ladies are dealing with the same thing.”
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese's college rivalry follows them to WNBA
The ‘rivalry' between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese began in earnest with one gesture in the 2023 national championship game. On the verge of winning the title, Reese waved her hand in front of her face and tapped her ring finger, which sparked thinkpieces and attention unheard of in regards to women's basketball.
The two players and their respective teams stayed apart on the court for an entire year until the Elite Eight, when Iowa was able to exact revenge and defeat LSU en route to another national title game appearance. Clark and Reese, along with Paige Bueckers and others, drew massive television ratings for college basketball and have already begun to have a similar effect on the WNBA.
While Bueckers remains at UConn for potentially her final season of college basketball, Clark and Reese have starred for the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky, respectively, earning praise, criticism, and attention just as they did in college.
