Former NBA point guard Raymond Felton has said the WNBA should award the Rookie of the Year award to Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese as a way to honor their contributions to the league.
The 40-year-old, a 2005 NCAA champion, was asked what he thought of the two rivals just two days after Reese and Clark played together on the same team for the first time in their careers at the WNBA All-Star Game.
“Caitlin Clark has figured it out. She’s playing some incredible basketball,” Felton said via Tidal League.
‘Angel Reese is breaking records… If (the ROTY race) is so close, let them share it…
‘Both have changed and impacted the NBA.’
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese deserve WNBA ROTY awards, says Raymond Felton
Felton, a former NBA point guard, bases his opinion on the fact that the NBA split the award three times.
Basketball fans were divided on social media about Felton’s proposal, as his opinion was inspired by the fact that the NBA had already split its Rookie of the Year Award on three separate occasions.
Dave Cowens and Geoff Petrie won the Rookie of the Year Award in the 1970–71 season, Grant Hill and Jason Kidd in the 1994–95 season, and Elton Brand and Steve Francis in the 1999–2000 season.
A fan posted on X: ‘Grant Hill and Jason Kidd shared it for the 1994-95 season… so Caitlin and Reese can do it in the WNBA… it’s just this year.’
Someone else, on the other hand, wrote: “No, it’s not called Rookies of the Year.”
“Why?” another person asked in response to Felton’s suggestion.
“This is like BOTH of them going to the White House after that championship game,” one user noted, referring to the aftermath of the 2023 NCAA Championship game, when Jill Biden, the First Lady of the United States, suggested that both Iowa and LSU should visit the White House after the Tigers’ win over the Hawkeyes.
However, no finalist in NCAA tournament history has ever paid an official visit to the U.S. president. Only LSU ended up meeting with the Biden administration that year.
Meanwhile, speculation about Reese’s trip to Paris has gone viral as fans believe the All-Star may have received a last-minute call-up to the U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team.
Clark was not selected.