Packed crowds and superstars make this a WNBA season like no other | WNBA

AAs the NFL’s Colts took on the Packers in Wisconsin on Sunday, downtown Indianapolis was alive—but not for football. A half-mile down the road from the Colts’ empty stadium, Gainbridge Fieldhouse was nearly filled to capacity for the WNBA afternoon game between the Dallas Wings and Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever. And the game did not disappoint.

Clark, this year’s No. 1 draft pick, scored a career-high 35 points to set the single-season rookie scoring record, and her late free throws helped preserve a 110-109 victory that secured Indiana a sixth-place playoff spot. The prospect of basketball flocking to a football Sunday isn’t a new concept in the Hoosier State, where the local NBA and men’s college programs ruled before the Colts emerged from Baltimore in the dark. But the WNBA’s hold on that crowd is new, and a testament to what has been a regular season unlike any other — with new faces and dominant figures propelling the league to new heights.

At every turn, it seems, the league is showing that women’s professional basketball is having a major breakthrough. The ratings have skyrocketed. ION, which only began airing WNBA games last year, saw viewership for its 43-game season more than double to 23 million viewers — and those numbers don’t include Thursday night games before the postseason begins on Sunday. Half of that audience were women ages 18 to 49, the demographic most sought after by advertisers. Meanwhile, individual teams are setting record numbers. “EVERYONE IS WATCHING WOMEN’S SPORTS,” gymnast Simone Biles tweeted during a Fever game with track star Gabby Thomas after their Olympic gold-medal runs. “My first of many WNBA games.”

Of course, a large part of this explosion of interest in the league comes down to one woman: Clark, the most influential player women’s basketball has ever seen. After a slow start to the season in which she became an object of sympathy for casual fans desperate to see her succeed, the Fever guard came roaring back from the WNBA’s Olympic break, shattering a slew of offensive records en route to the team’s first playoff berth in eight years—with Sunday’s game marking the end of the league’s second-longest playoff drought. Along the way, she effectively swayed the W to approve charter flights, paved the way for a $2.2 billion media rights deal and brought untold value to the three new teams joining the league over the next two years. Not since Biles has a woman played such a prominent role in a single sport’s run of success.

While Clark remains the biggest draw in women’s professional basketball, she’s hardly a one-woman show. Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier has been on a roll, averaging over 21 points over the past 14 games to help the Lynx move into second place. In Year 15, Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner is still strong, leading the 2023 semifinalists in scoring along with sharpshooter Marina Mabrey, who arrived via a midseason trade from Chicago for Connecticut’s playoff push this year. Sangfroid slashers Kahleah Copper and Natasha Cloud have kept Phoenix in contention, while scoring dynamo Jewell Loyd and former league MVP Nneka Ogwumike have carried Seattle back to the playoffs after the Storm missed the cut last year. Plus, the show could end with Breanna Stewart winning her first title with the New York Liberty, the league’s best team in the regular season.

For much of this season, there was a fair amount of wondering whether Clark would share top rookie honors with Angel Reese, her college rival who was drafted six spots later by the Chicago Sky. Like Clark, Reese carried her team’s playoff hopes on her shoulders and also set the league record for rebounds. When Reese wasn’t furthering her Bird-Magic rivalry with Clark and stoking social media black-and-white debates, she’s made an equally potent impression off the court as a brand ambassador and fashion icon—a double-dip few have effectively pulled off since Lisa Leslie’s mainstream crossover at the turn of the century.

After both rookies were passed over for the U.S. women’s national team, Clark and Reese teamed up for an All-Star showcase against the team headed to Paris, defeating the golden girls 117-109. That game—the first ever with Clark and Reese on the same side, and featuring two WNBA rookies—drew to nearly 4 million viewers on ABC, three times the audience that tuned in to watch the groundbreaking WNBA All-Star game in 2003. Had Reese not suffered a season-ending wrist injury earlier this month, she likely would have held the league’s record for rebounding, with a streak of 15 consecutive double-doubles. “All I ever wanted was to come to the W and make an impact,” she wrote in a celebratory message. “I can confidently say that I did that and I will strive to continue to do so.”

Ultimately, she was outshone by A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, the player Reese has modeled herself after — right down to the one-legged sleeve she wears on the court. “These rookies have had a decent season,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a recent CNBC appearance that was quickly overshadowed by her failure to condemn the abusive online rhetoric the players have faced in light of the league’s rise in popularity. “People call (the WNBA) a growth stock. We have a lot of potential.”

The league’s favorite for MVP over Clark, who only found herself in contention in the second half of the season, Wilson passed Reese in the rebound column earlier this week, prompting rumors of bad blood when she marked the moment by saying she doesn’t “chase rebounds” — an accusation Reese has had all year. What’s more, Wilson eclipsed Reese days after becoming the first WNBA player to reach 1,000 points in a single season; that was enough to secure Wilson’s highest single-season scoring average in history.

All in all, Wilson is a force on the court, almost single-handedly helping Team USA to gold in a thrilling Olympic final against France. Before that, she kept the Aces’ triple-title hopes alive as the team struggled through the first half of the season without All-Star guard Chelsea Gray. That poor start has landed the reigning champions a lower-than-normal seed for the playoffs. And no underdog in the pool looks meaner than sixth-seeded Indiana, even though Las Vegas swept their four-game series.

Lurking in everyone’s sights is the top favorite Liberty, looking to avenge their loss to Las Vegas in last year’s championship. Stewart was once again a force and could have repeated as league MVP this year had she not scaled back her play to make room for teammates like Sabrina Ionescu, who nearly hit a career-high in scoring average even as her shooting percentages declined. The adjustment yielded a second straight 30-win season for a Liberty team that has become a New York scene unto itself — with individual tri-staters crossing rivers to mingle at the Barclays Center and watch Ellie the Elephant, the best mascot in the business, do her thing.

Historically, the WNBA playoffs competing with the NFL has been a concern for women’s basketball fans. But after the year the W just had, there’s no doubt fans will turn out in droves — especially if Clark sticks around to keep things interesting.