WNBA cooler and hotter than NBA as $2bn league adds Paige Bueckers to Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese rivalry

The unthinkable has happened.

The WNBA doesn’t just possess the premier player vs player rivalry in the basketball world.

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The WNBA has also become more compelling and buzz-filled than a competing league that features LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese, on and off the hardwood, is one of the best clashes in sports — and it’s just beginning.

Everyone has a strong opinion about Clark, everyone has an equally sharp opinion about Reese, and the WNBA now has its version of Larry Bird vs Magic Johnson, despite the fact that Clark and Reese play different positions, rarely match up on the court, and Reese’s team went 13-27 last year.

Paige Bueckers, fresh off an NCAA women’s basketball championship, is the WNBA’s next big name and instantly became the face of the Dallas Wings as the No. 1 overall pick in Monday’s draft.

Hailey Van Lith, who inspired millions in the NCAA Tournament, rejoined former LSU teammate Reese as the No. 11 pick of the Chicago Sky.

“We ain’t do it right the first time,” Reese tweeted. “Let’s run it backkkkk.”

A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum are among the other leading names for a league that has risen from almost invisible to must-watch in just two years.

Nothing about the NBA is must watch in 2025, even with Curry’s Golden State Warriors set to play Ja Morant‘s Memphis Grizzlies in a play-in game.

Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal constantly hating on the league they’re paid millions to analyze — even when the bitterness is hilarious — obviously doesn’t help the NBA’s public cause.

But the league’s problems run much deeper, with everything from too many meaningless regular season games to endless 3-pointers leaving commissioner Adam Silver acknowledging that major change is required.

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Hailey Van Lith is ready for her WNBA spotlight[/caption]

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Caitlin Clark has lifted women’s basketball to a new level[/caption]

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Luka Doncic and LeBron James teamed up, but it was a forced union for the Lakers[/caption]

“I am a fan of four 10-minute quarters,” Silver said on the Dan Patrick Show.

That’s not a great idea, but at least Silver is willing to admit that no one wants to pay money to watch the Washington Wizards or Utah Jazz play 82 games that last a traditional 48 minutes.

“I think a two-hour format for a game is more consistent with modern television habits,” Silver said.

“People in arenas aren’t asking us to shorten the game, but being as a television program: two hours, that’s Olympic basketball, college basketball, of course.”

When the commissioner of the NBA is admitting that less NBA is a good thing — and he’s right — the NBA has a serious image problem.

James has been brilliant at 40, even if an offseason of ‘Bronny James on the Lakers!’ hype resulted in pitiful rookie numbers of 2.3 average points, 6.7 minutes and 31.3 percent shooting.

But it would take seven Finals games of Luka Doncic and The King against the defending-champion Boston Celtics to make the NBA truly feel essential again this summer.

Cooper Flagg going pro will help.

But if Flagg plays for the Wizards or Jazz, does ESPN even notice?

Clark playing nightly for the small-market Indiana Fever always feels huge, even when she makes $47 million a year less than the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

New legacies are being created in the WNBA and the only way is up for women’s basketball, as long as simmering financial issues don’t wreck all the recent momentum.

Bueckers is another instantly recognizable name in a league that keeps adding inspirational star and recently signed a new $2.2bn broadcast deal.

With James at 40, Curry at 37 and Durant at 36, the NBA is staring at its biggest crossroads since Michael Jordan walked away for the last time.

It used to be easy to joke that the WNBA only existed because the NBA kept it alive.

In 2025, the unthinkable has happened.

A league built by Bird and Magic has given its spotlight to a better game played by young stars who are easy to admire and feel instantly relatable.

Meanwhile, Morant is ‘throwing’ hand grenades and Jimmy Butler has quit on another team despite earning more than $300 million in his career.

No wonder Reese, Clark, Bueckers, Wilson and Stewart are the new modern basketball heroes.

The WNBA is cooler — and hotter — than the NBA.