The WNBA season may be over but comparisons between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese persist. While the 22-year-old has gone out of the spotlight once the Fever lost the first round of the playoffs, Reese’s appearance in the WNBA Finals on Sunday night has caused a stir. And yet, it’s the 2024 Rookie of the Year who has again left the Sky forward in the dust.

SportsPro just released their list of ’50 Most Marketable Athletes,’ and Caitlin Clark ranks at No. 4, right behind Simone Biles, Vinicius Junior, and LeBron James. Reese, meanwhile, is all the way down at 26, behind names like Kelsey Plum, Paige Bueckers, and Breanna Stewart. This makes the Fever rookie the most marketable name in the W, also leaving behind three-time MVP A’ja Wilson.

SportsPro, by NorthStar Solutions Group (Henley as the parent group), is currently valued at $2.6 million. Giving Clark a marketability score of 90.26, Reese comes in at 76.85. Per Axios, “To be considered eligible, an athlete must have been active between Sept. 1, 2023 and Sept. 1, 2024.” 

The numbers are especially interesting when one realizes that the Fever guard has a smaller presence on social media in general, whereas Reese does not only make headlines for her offcourt pursuits as well but also has her own podcast, Unapologetically Angel.

Another thing to be noted is that while this rookie class has broken viewership record numbers in the W, the league is still going to lose a substantial $40 million, per Josh Kosman and Brian Lewis of the New York Post. The NBA owns almost 60% of the WNBA, going up to 75% when NBA team owners’ personal stakes are counted. But the W owners are not ready to make any returns on these investments anytime soon.

So even though sellout stadiums have been the norm this season, they have not done much to repay the debt to the NBA yet. And it’s not just the Caitlin Clark effect or her rivalry with Angel Reese. Interest in the league as a whole has grown, which the numbers Finals proved. The Lynx vs Liberty averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.67 million viewers on ESPN in Game 4, the highest in 24 years, whereas a sellout crowd of 18,090 was present at Barclays Center.

But if this marketability list holds true, the WNBA’s 5 current stars and 1 future star might do good for the league just yet. But CC, and Reese for that matter, only made the list because of how NorthStar Solutions Group executives set the parameters. Per one official, Clark might have not made the list at all.

Lack of multiple years of consistent performance almost made Caitlin Clark lose out

After the SportsPro list was announced, more details on how these athletes were chosen came to light. Where LeBron James is the most popular NBA player, Caitlin Clark rules the WNBA on this list. The reasons are clear but SportsPro deputy editor Ed Dixon told Axios that NorthStar Solutions Group used both qualitative research and quantitative metrics to finalize names.

Chris Collins, chief executive ofNorthStar Solutions Group, said, “Somebody like Caitlin Clark, she’s got a lot of momentum behind her as does women’s sports … but she doesn’t have multiple years of consistent performance and consistent achievement. If that’s all we looked at, she would never even rise into a category of some of these longer-term athletes like LeBron or Messi that have been doing this forever.”

Dixon also compared Clark’s arrival in the W to Tiger Woods in golf, which means her visibility is only going to grow, as is the sport. The general unspoken rule is if that a rookie is popular and continues to perform well, their legend only grows; just look at A’ja Wilson. So this is just the beginning of Reese and Clark in women’s basketball, the best is yet to come!