Angel Reese will play for a WNBA championship before Caitlin Clark, a twist few Iowa basketball fans saw coming when the two rivals entered the league together in 2024. The Atlanta Dream center, traded away from Chicago last April, closed out the New York Liberty on October 14 to reach her first WNBA Finals, which begin Saturday.
According to Sporting News, Reese and Clark remain locked in one of basketball's most watched rivalries, and the scoreboard on championships now reads Reese ahead at every level. She beat Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2023 NCAA title game, and she has now reached the WNBA Finals before the Fever superstar has won a single playoff series.
How Reese got to the Finals first
The paths diverged quickly after the 2024 draft. Clark went No. 1 overall to Indiana after a Hawkeyes career stacked with national player of the year awards and record-shattering scoring. Reese, the 2023 national champion at LSU, fell to No. 7 and the Chicago Sky.
Clark's rookie season was a smash by any measure. She set the WNBA single-game assist record with 19, became the first rookie to record a triple-double, and won Rookie of the Year while lifting Indiana from 13 wins to a 20-20 finish and its first playoff berth since 2016. Connecticut swept the Fever in the first round anyway.
Reese put up historic numbers in Chicago too, breaking the league's single-season rebounding record and averaging 13.1 boards, but the Sky went 13-27. Her second season brought more of the same: an All-Star nod, her first triple-double, another rebounding title, and a 10-34 record. Off the court, the Sky suspended her for a half-game for statements the team called detrimental, and a technical foul accumulation cost her another game.
The trade that changed everything
Chicago shipped Reese to Atlanta last April for two first-round picks, and the move paid off immediately. According to the Washington Times, Reese became the first player from the celebrated 2024 draft class to reach the Finals as a starter, and she did it in her first postseason appearance.
In a Dream uniform, Reese was named an All-Star for the third straight year, became the fastest player in WNBA history to grab 1,000 career rebounds, set single-game (26) and single-season rebounding records, and won Defensive Player of the Year. Atlanta then knocked off Washington and New York to reach the championship round.
If the Dream win the title, Reese will have claimed championships in high school, college, the Unrivaled league, and the WNBA.