The unthinkable has occurred.
The WNBA does not simply possess the premier participant vs participant rivalry within the basketball world.
4
The WNBA has additionally grow to be extra compelling and buzz-filled than a competing league that options LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese, on and off the hardwood, is without doubt one of the finest clashes in sports activities — and it is simply starting.
Everybody has a robust opinion about Clark, everybody has an equally sharp opinion about Reese, and the WNBA now has its model of Larry Chook vs Magic Johnson, even though Clark and Reese play completely different positions, not often match up on the court docket, and Reese’s workforce went 13-27 final 12 months.
Paige Bueckers, recent off an NCAA ladies’s basketball championship, is about to grow to be the WNBA’s subsequent massive title in Monday’s draft and anticipated to immediately grow to be the face of the Dallas Wings.
A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum are among the many different main names for a league that has risen from virtually invisible to must-watch in simply two years.
Nothing concerning the NBA is should watch in 2025, even with Curry’s Golden State Warriors set to play Ja Morant’s Memphis Grizzlies in a play-in sport.
Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal continually hating on the league they’re paid thousands and thousands to research — even when the bitterness is hilarious — clearly does not assist the NBA’s public trigger.
However the league’s issues run a lot deeper, with all the pieces from too many meaningless common season video games to limitless 3-pointers leaving commissioner Adam Silver acknowledging that main change is required.
“I’m a fan of 4 10-minute quarters,” Silver mentioned on the Dan Patrick Present,
That is not an excellent concept, however at the least Silver is keen to confess that nobody needs to pay cash to observe the Washington Wizards or Utah Jazz play 82 video games that final a standard 48 minutes.
4
4
4
“I believe a two-hour format for a sport is extra per trendy tv habits,” Silver mentioned.
“Individuals in arenas aren’t asking us to shorten the sport, however being as a tv program: two hours, that is Olympic basketball, school basketball, after all.”
When the commissioner of the NBA is admitting that much less NBA is an effective factor — and he is proper — the NBA has a critical picture drawback.
James has been sensible at 40, even when an offseason of ‘Bronny James on the Lakers!’ hype resulted in pitiful rookie numbers of two.3 common factors, 6.7 minutes and 31.3 p.c taking pictures.
However it will take seven Finals video games of Luka Doncic and The King in opposition to the defending-champion Boston Celtics to make the NBA really really feel important once more this summer time.
Cooper Flagg going professional will assist.
NBA’s Best
But when Flagg performs for the Wizards or Jazz, does ESPN even discover?
Clark enjoying nightly for the small-market Indiana Fever at all times feels enormous, even when she makes $47 million a 12 months lower than the NBA’s all-time main scorer.
New legacies are being created within the WNBA and the one approach is up for ladies’s basketball, so long as simmering monetary points do not wreck all of the latest momentum.
Bueckers is one other immediately recognizable title in a league that retains including inspirational star and just lately signed a brand new $2.2bn broadcast deal.
With James at 40, Curry at 37 and Durant at 36, the NBA is watching its largest crossroads since Michael Jordan walked away for the final time.
It was once straightforward to joke that the WNBA solely existed as a result of the NBA stored it alive.
In 2025, the unthinkable has occurred.
A league constructed by Chook and Magic has given its highlight to a greater sport performed by younger stars who’re straightforward to admire and really feel immediately relatable.
In the meantime, Morant is ‘throwing’ hand grenades and Jimmy Butler has stop on one other workforce regardless of incomes greater than $300 million in his profession.
No marvel Reese, Clark, Bueckers, Wilson and Stewart are the brand new trendy basketball heroes.
The WNBA is cooler and warmer than the NBA.