Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has won the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year Award, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
She’s the third Fever player to receive the honor, joining Tamika Catchings and teammate Aliyah Boston.
Clark shook off a sluggish start to have one of the best debut campaigns in league history. She averaged 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 41.7 percent from the floor and 34.4 percent from beyond the arc.
The 6’0″ guard also claimed multiple league and team records, including having the most assists in a single game (19) and across an entire season (337).
Few players have entered the WNBA burdened with more hype and expectations than Clark, and that set the bar almost impossibly high. Even entertaining the idea she might be an MVP candidate belied how difficult the adjustment is from college to the pros in women’s basketball.
Clark proceeded to have a tough first month. In nine games across May, she put up 17.6 points per game on 37.7 percent shooting and averaged nearly as many turnovers (5.7) as assists (6.6).
The Fever also went 1-8 during that stretch, leading many to question whether the franchise’s playoff drought would extend to eight years.
Over in the Windy City, Angel Reese fully capitalized with the Rookie of the Year race opening up and set some records of her own. Her 446 total rebounds were briefly the most in a season, and she went a WNBA-record 15 straight games with a double-double.
Reese averaged 13.6 points and led the WNBA rebounds by hauling in 13.1 per game.
A wrist injury brought her year to a premature end, though, with six games left in the regular season. That all but handed Rookie of the Year to Clark, who was already edging ahead thanks to her and the Fever’s surge after the Olympic break.
Her exclusion from Team USA sparked a lot of debate, but it was a blessing in disguise as it afforded her time off she didn’t enjoy between the end of the college season and the start of her WNBA career.
Clark averaged 23.1 points and 8.9 assists after the monthlong pause break as Indiana secured a spot in the postseason.
What was shaping up to be a close ROY vote proved to be pretty decisive in Clark’s favor. There’s no reason to believe her and Reese’s competitive rivalry is going anywhere, though.
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