By Jamison Ness
In 1997, the WNBA was arranged to attempt to create a professional scene for the world's best womens basketball players to have their own NBA experience. Through the last 27 seasons, there have been ups and downs in growth trends with women's basketball. Within the last 2-3 years, this has become a very significant incline. That being said, nothing has changed the WNBA the way this 2024 rookie class has. Players like Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink, and Kamilla Cardoso have lit a fire under the WNBA fans like we have never seen before. The best part is, they are only getting started.
Angel Reese was drafted to the Chicago Sky as the seventh overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft. Reese continues to have fan support for the community she built when she played her collegiate career at Maryland and LSU. Known as the “Bayou Barbie” down at LSU, she built a fandom of strong, powerful women to cheer her on. She has a massive sponsorship deal with Beats by Dre, and continues to inspire young women. Over 4 collegiate seasons, she averaged 18.6 points1, and looks to be “vocal and confident” during her rookie season.2
Caitlin Clark is the biggest sensation of women's basketball. After an outstanding career at Iowa, she was drafted first overall to the Indiana Fever. Although Clark had astonishing stats through her college career, her impact on women's basketball is so much deeper than that. With her star power on Iowa, the team was able to sell out a football stadium for a game vs Depaul, sell out season tickets for Iowa WBB in the 2023-2024 season, see a massive increase in youth women's basketball (especially in Iowa), and nearly double the attendance at away games when she and her squad are in town. Caitlin Clark will forever go down as a legend in women's collegiate
1 https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/angel-reese-1.html 2
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-sky-star-angel-reese-speaks-on-draft-process-tr aining-camp-and-confidence/3426472/
basketball. She looks to pair with 2023 first overall WNBa pick, Aliyah Boston, to bring a championship to Indiana.
Cameron Brink was drafted 2nd overall to the Los Angeles Sparks. After 4 successful years at Stanford, she looks to continue in the WNBA by applying her defensive power to the league. Being 6”4, Brink is able to physically demand the court and is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. Brink also is the goddaughter of Dell Curry, and spent a lot of time training with the Curry’s growing up. To add to her athleticism, Cameron Brink's parents became close with the Curry’s at Virginia Tech, where her father played with Dell on the basketball team there. In her first spurt of time with the Sparks, Brink looks to “adjust to the quickness of the game”, and “learn to play through physicality”3
Kamilia Cardoso, originally from Brazil, competed for 3 seasons collegiately with South Carolina after starting her career with Syracuse. She was drafted 3rd overall to the Chicaog sky in this May’s WNBA draft. Cardoso is a daunting 6”7, and was a confident leader of the South Carolina squad that won 2 championships in the last 3 years. Cardoso uses her size and skill to make an impact every time she is on the court. Unfortunately, Cardoso will have to wait to make her official non-preseason debut in the WNBA for nearly 4-6 weeks because of a shoulder injury. During her first preseason game against Minnesota, Cardoso racked up 6 points in 13 minutes of play.
These women have been key to the evolution of the WNBA over the past few months. It was announced this month that WNBA teams will now all get chartered flights all season, California and Tornoto will be getting WNBA expansion teams as soon as 2026, and ticket sales on stubHub are up nearly 93 percent from last season. Before this year, the WNBA struggled to sell tickets, have adequate media coverage, and simply be talked about. WNBA is in the media now more than ever before.4This growth is thanks to the talent, dedication, leadership, and advocating for women's sports from stars like Brink, Cardoso, Clark, and Reese. With the combined potential of these draft picks and the power that they hold, the overall popularity and development of the WNBA will skyrocket. For example, the role models that these women are able to be for young athletes, the community growth they are going to spark, and the pure entertainment they will bring to the WNBA are only a few of the reasons that these draft picks are huge assets to the WNBA. With these superstars on the rise, the WNBA is in for an electric season of women's basketball.
3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30wd5GlrKQ4
4 https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/05/15/wnba-season-opener-busines
References
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/angel-reese-1.html
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-sky-star-angel-reese-speaks-on-draft-process-tr aining-camp-and-confidence/3426472/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30wd5GlrKQ4 https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/05/15/wnba-season-opener-busines