Women's Fastbreak On SI

WNBA Fans At Odds Over Angel Reese Beating Caitlin Clark in Social Stardom Metric

Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark have been pitted against each other once again after their Instagram followings went viral.
Grant Young|
Apr 15, 2024; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark pose for photos before the 2024 WNBA Draft at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Apr 15, 2024; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark pose for photos before the 2024 WNBA Draft at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Whether it's based on objective facts and stats or subjective opinions, just about every women's basketball fan has to agree that the sport's two biggest stars are Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese.

Their global renown will always be intertwined, as they were both thrust into the mainstream once Reese taunted Clark by pointing to her ring finger in the final seconds of the 2023 NCAA national championship game, moments before Reese's LSU Tigers defeated Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes.

Clark exacted revenge during the 2024 NCAA tournament. And since then, these two have faced off several times in the WNBA, each has performed exceptionally well individually, and both have only grown as superstars.

However, debate is raging about them both again on April 16, after a graphic showing their respective Instagram followings has gone viral.

X user @ChicagoXcheetah made an X post showing the graphic, which depicts Reese's 4.8 million Instagram followers, Clark's 3.1 million, Paige Bueckers' 2.3 million, Sabrina Ionescu's 1.4 million, and A'ja Wilson's 1.3 million. The post's caption read, "Angel Reese is the face of the league."

As one can imagine, fans are disagreeing about this stance.

"Followers don’t bring people to the arenas, don’t make people tune into the game and watch or purchase merchandise. The only true faces of this league is Caitlin and A’ja Wilson," one fan commented.

Another posted a graphic of Clark and wrote, "The face of the league has 41 games on tv, Angel barely clears half that 😛".

A third fan agreed with the initial post by saying, "Social media followers is now the metric for Hollywood casting so this is more than fair sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯".

The bottom line is that both Clark and Reese's followings will only continue to grow as their careers progress.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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