The Angel Reese double-double record should have bought her one completely normal night of praise. Apparently that is still impossible, because every time Reese does something great, somebody has to drag Caitlin Clark into it like the WNBA only has room for one successful young star at a time.
Reese had 15 points and 11 rebounds Sunday as Atlanta beat league-leading Minnesota 89-81 and improved to 26-14. That was her 29th double-double of the season, passing Alyssa Thomas’ previous WNBA record of 28. And this was not even her first ridiculous record in six days. Reese grabbed 26 rebounds against Los Angeles on Monday, the most ever in a WNBA game, while also breaking the league’s single-season rebounding record.
That is a fucking monster of a season. You can hate the way she plays, hate the trash talk, hate the fanbase wars, whatever.. at some point the basketball itself has to count.
The Angel Reese double-double record is not a Caitlin Clark debate
This is where WNBA conversation completely loses its mind. Is Angel better than Caitlin? No. Is she the bigger star? Also no (and it is not particularly close). Who decided either one had to be true before Angel gets her flowers?
Clark and Reese have basically been attached to each other since LSU beat Iowa for the national title in 2023. Then they entered the WNBA together, the rookie debate exploded, every matchup became an event, and now a section of both fanbases treats literally ANY praise of the other player like a personal attack. Caitlin scores 30 and somebody needs to tell you why Angel sucks. Angel breaks a record and somebody immediately starts pulling television ratings like they are defending a doctoral thesis.
Guys.. these are different conversations.
If we are talking about who drives the most attention to the WNBA, yeah, Caitlin Clark is the biggest star in the sport. If we are talking about who I would take as the better player, I am taking Caitlin there too. But Angel Reese just broke the single-season double-double record while playing for a 26-win Atlanta team, and she did it against the best team in the league. There is nothing fake about that accomplishment. There is no asterisk that says, “Congratulations, but please remember Caitlin Clark exists.”
And the timing makes the constant dismissal even dumber. Reese did not stumble into one weird record because she played 40 minutes in a blowout. She has been doing this all year. The 29 double-doubles are now the most anybody has ever had in one WNBA season. The 26-rebound game is the most anybody has ever had in one WNBA game. Her season rebounding total already passed the previous league record. At some point, when one player keeps breaking different versions of the same record, maybe the correct response is just.. she is REALLY damn good at this.
That does not make every criticism of Reese invalid either. You can debate her offense, efficiency, ceiling, whatever you want. Sports would be boring if we all agreed on every player. But there is a difference between criticizing somebody’s game and refusing to acknowledge anything they accomplish because you picked the other side of a rivalry three years ago.
That is the part of this whole Clark-Reese thing that has gotten so stupid. Rivalries are supposed to make sports more fun. You pick a side, talk some trash, celebrate when your person wins, and enjoy having somebody on the other side worth caring about. They are not supposed to require you to pretend the other player is suddenly some random rec-league call-up every time she does something historic.
Angel Reese is having one of the best rebounding seasons the WNBA has ever seen. Atlanta is winning, she is stacking records, and Sunday she added another one against Minnesota.
Give her the flowers.
