It was a busy opening weekend for the WNBA with record-breaking performances and ratings as the league’s stars shined.
The game between Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever and Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky drew an average of 2.7 million viewers, which made it the most-watched WNBA game on ESPN platforms. Clark posted a triple-double while Reese had 12 points and 17 rebounds in the blowout loss for Chicago.
The pair also had a moment on the court when Clark had a hard foul on Reese while she was going for a layup that ended up being a flagrant 1 when it was upgraded by the officials. Both players after the game said that it was just a basketball play.
A day after the game, the league said it was looking into racist comments made towards Reese by fans.
Indiana said it would do what it could to help the league.
“I told the team, obviously, we’re going to cooperate fully with the investigation,” Fever coach Stephanie White said Monday. “But there’s no place for that in our league, whether it’s at home, whether it’s on the road. It doesn’t matter. We want to encourage our players, our staff to bring recognition to it in real time if it’s heard, if it’s seen or anything of that nature.”
The two teams will meet again on June 7 in Chicago.
It wasn’t just the Chicago-Indiana game that drew strong numbers. The opener Saturday between Las Vegas and New York had an average of 1.3 million viewers. Reigning MVP A’ja Wilson had a stellar performance in the loss. Last season’s runner-up for MVP also had a strong opening weekend as Napheesa Collier led Minnesota to two victories.
While Indiana, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and Minnesota were expected to be in the WNBA spotlight this season, not much was expected of Washington with a new coach, new general manager and a whole host of new players, led by rookies Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen.
The Mystics won their first two games and now head out for a three-game west coast trip in Golden State, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
