Rivalries are rooted in history, bitter aversion, and a healthy helping of competition.
In the WNBA, there is none bigger than the one developing between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever, as proved by the hype and fallout for the season-opening matchup between the two teams in Indianapolis. A sold-out crowd filled Gainbridge Fieldhouse to see two stars—Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark—whose history goes back to their college days.
Two days later, Clark’s flagrant foul on Reese still has the sports world’s attention.
There is only one hang-up preventing this thing from truly going nuclear: The Sky aren’t very good.
“We take this one on the chin,” first-year Sky coach Tyler Marsh said following his team’s 93–58 loss Saturday.
What else is there to do following a 35-point blowout in your debut?
Marsh didn’t shy away from the fact that his team didn’t play well. But there is truly a competitive gulf between the two teams. The Fever are set to make their neighbors 182 miles to their north a punching bag for the rest of the year.
Despite the lack of a competitive rivalry, though, everyone is still talking about the game.
“You guys love it, that’s for sure,” Clark said to the media about the rivalry ahead of Saturday’s matchup.
As much as Clark—and Reese—might want it to be, though, this is not just a media-fueled circus. Look no further than the record attendance, ratings, and the league itself prioritizing the matchup.
In 2024, all of their meetings were sellouts. The Fever and Sky’s June 23 game averaged 2.3 million viewers, which was the most watched WNBA game in 23 years.
This year, the league scheduled five meetings between the Sky and the Fever. Three of them are in primetime broadcast slots. The Sky moved both of their home games against the Fever to the United Center to accommodate more fans. Their June 7 meeting will be the first WNBA game played at the United Center.
The reality is: Players, leagues, and even the media don’t determine rivalries. Fans do.
Take, for instance, the Sky getting heckled as they emerged from the tunnel at Gainbridge on Saturday. Following Clark’s foul on Reese in the third quarter the boo birds sang for the Sky forward as she stepped to the free throw line. Maybe even louder were the cheers as she missed her first attempt.
On Monday morning the news cycle was still dominated by discussion over the game—which, again, was a blowout. More accurately, the take cycle has been driven by one play.
“Basketball play,” Reese said about Clark’s foul postgame. “Refs got it right. Move on.” (Clark’s play was upgraded to a flagrant; Reese and Aliyah Boston were hit with technicals in the aftermath.)
As has often been the case with these two players over the last four years, though, things turned ugly in the hours and days after the game. Fans drawn into the league by Clark attacked Reese—online and perhaps in person—for what is otherwise bog-standard physicality and competitive bravado.
On Sunday, the WNBA announced it had launched an investigation following reported allegations of racist comments towards Reese and the Sky.
Clark, Fever forward Brianna Turner, as well as coach Stephanie White, met with the media Monday following practice and expressed their support of the league’s investigation.
Sky practice was not open to the media Monday.
“Obviously we told the team we’re going to cooperate fully with the investigation,” White said. “But there’s no place for that in our league. Whether it’s at home, on the road it doesn’t matter. We want to encourage our players and our staff to bring recognition to it in real time if it’s heard or seen.”
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is one of countless people who has compared Clark and Reese to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The comparison is tempting, as one white star and one Black star came in the league at the same time and supercharged it.
But there are some key differences, too. There was no social media 40 years ago; the WNBA announced before the start of this season that it was taking a special initiative to combat online hate, racism, and homophobia. And maybe as importantly, Bird and Johnson both played on teams that were good.
The Sky and Fever will be at the center of the WNBA universe as long as Reese is suiting up in Chicago and Clark is in Indiana. But until the Sky meet the Fever at the mountaintop, it won’t reach its true box office potential.
