The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game was one of the most monumental events in league history. Allisha Gray made history by becoming the first player to win the Skills Challenge and the 3-Point Contest on the same night, Team USA clashed with Team WNBA, and the future arrived in front of our very eyes.
At the heart of the latter development were rookie stars Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, who ended a 10-year drought and continued to push the WNBA toward a brighter future.
Clark and Reese are the runaway favorites for the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year award. Both have elevated their respective teams' quality of play, producing All-Star-level stats and setting league records in their first professional seasons.
Statistically, Clark ranks No. 1 in the WNBA at 8.2 assists per game, while Reese is No. 2 in the league with a mark of 11.9 rebounds per contest. Both have also scored in double figures at virtual will, making them the prototypical stat sheet stuffers.
In the process, Clark and Reese ended a 10-year WNBA drought, with 2024 marking the first time that multiple rookies have appeared in the All-Star Game since 2014.
Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese first rookie WNBA All-Star duo since 2014
The 2014 WNBA All-Star Game saw rookies Chiney Ogwumike and Shoni Schimmel earn All-Star honors in their first professional seasons. It was an exceptional start from the former first-round draft picks, as well as the last time it would happen for a decade.
Ogwumike won Rookie of the Year that season and earned All-Star honors again in 2018, while Schimmel retired just four years after her appearance.
Multiple rookies being selected to the All-Star Game was far more common before the 2014 cutoff. Danielle Adams, Liz Cambage, Maya Moore, and Courtney Vandersloot all made it as first-year players in 2011, for instance, with a vast number of examples predating them.
The expectations that Clark and Reese are facing are closer to the Cambage and Moore range as players who many expect to see in MVP discussions in the near future.
The pressure placed on Clark and Reese to perform has been undeniably extreme considering they're still first-year players. They've managed to rise to the occasion, however, leading the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky, respectively, to top-eight seeds in the playoff hunt.
Furthermore, Clark recently set the WNBA record for assists in a single game with 19, while Reese set an all-time mark of her own with 15 consecutive double-doubles.
Exiting the All-Star break, all eyes will return to the Fever and Sky as they look to reach the playoffs in 2024. Indiana currently occupies the No. 7 seed at 11-15, while Chicago is just 1.0 game back with a record of 10-14.
With Clark and Reese helping to lead their respective teams, the 2024 WNBA Playoffs would be yet another opportunity for the future to arrive.