Sports rivalries are one of the best aspects of being a fan. They transcend the game itself and create a unique community-building opportunity for both sides. Yet, the best rivalries are the ones that have been naturally cultivated over the years, instead of being mashed together to pit teams against one another, whether for views or ticket sales or whatever. While the WNBA is filled with fun and longstanding rivalries, the recent push to artificially create more has turned one of the best parts of the game into a concerning and inauthentic farce.
As someone who paid a lot of money for a piece of paper proving I am an English language expert, I took a deep dive into the word rivalry. By definition, a rivalry is “the state of two groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship,” and in many of the definitions of the word rivalry or rival, there is the idea that to be in a true rivalry, both sides are equals. While ultimately a rivalry is two competing sides trying to win over one another, the thing that makes them rivals is that they are so equal in skill, tradition, or performance that you never know which side will win on any given day.
To get really nerdy, the word rival stems from the Latin word rivus, which means stream (like the water kind of stream). The term evolved into the word rivalis, which meant two people who were using the same stream. It makes sense when you think about the parallels of two people trying to use the same resource and two teams trying to win the same championship in the same league. The more ya know.
Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs. New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox. Los Angeles Lakers vs. Boston Celtics. The list of iconic sports rivalries goes on and on, and the WNBA has begun adding to the list with its own entries. The growing rivalry between the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces is one that has become extremely fun. But what do all these matchups have in common? They grew naturally and authentically through healthy competition, and weren’t slapped together suddenly.
I’ll stop beating around the bush: I don’t think the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky have a rivalry. What they do have is a matchup that brings fans into seats and makes people turn on the TV, as proved by the record 2.7 million average viewers this weekend’s game brought to ESPN platforms — their most watched WNBA game ever. Yet, nothing about these two teams playing each other at the moment fits the true description of a rivalry.
First of all, they are not equal when it comes to chances at winning a WNBA championship, as Indiana has surged into the top tier of contention while the Sky are still putting the pieces together. Also, nothing about this “rivalry” grew authentically — people pitted Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese against each other after two hostile NCAA tournament games, and somehow now they have a “rivalry.”
Comparing the two players individually doesn’t even make sense, given that they aren’t even remotely similar or comparable players, given that Clark is a point guard and Reese is a forward. They are rarely going to go one-on-one with each other outside of help defense scenarios that have led to both of their much-discussed hard fouls on the court.
I’m not even saying we need Clark and Reese to be best friends or anything — not all women need to like each other! Yet, at the core of every good rivalry is basic respect between the two teams. An understanding that they will both play their hardest on the court, but respect each other as humans as well. And even if these teams had a historic rivalry, neither player would sic their fans on the other, or encourage harassment.
The reality is, this “rivalry” feels more like an attempt to sell tickets and get views more than anything, and it’s turned ugly fast. Sports rivalries are supposed to be about sports, not lead to harassment and unsafe treatment of athletes. Other than some friendly banter, rivalries are not supposed to lead to days and days of exhausting discourse and analyzing players’ every word and body language. They are definitely not supposed to lead to investigations by the league into allegations of racist fan activity in the stands of games, and we don’t need media members going so far that their own outlets have to release statements apologizing for it. Nothing about that is fun, or like the inclusive environment the WNBA has worked hard to foster. This “rivalry” feels more like an excuse for people to harass Angel Reese in plain sight, using the word rivalry as a shield for their inappropriate actions.
Let’s compare the Fever/Sky discourse to the previously mentioned WNBA rivalry of New York vs. Las Vegas. This started when Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones joined the Liberty, creating a lineup that could equal the force Las Vegas was building. The Aces had gone mostly unchallenged for a while at that point, and other teams were finally putting together teams specifically to match up with them. The individual battles between A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart — two dynamic forwards with similar accolades and comparable playing styles — were built on a foundation of mutual respect and genuine competition. The excitement of tuning into an Aces vs. Liberty game these days is all about one-on-one match-ups, elite play, and predicting who has a better chance of winning a championship. It’s fun.
Of course, things get heated on the court during these Aces/Liberty games. People boo, people cheer, players might get into little scuffles, but that’s where it ends. No one is screaming at A’ja Wilson, calling her names, or disrespecting her when she walks off the court in Brooklyn. If Stewart or Jonquel Jones gets fouled, people aren’t writing thinkpieces on it for days and days. It’s a game; the results are accepted, and everyone moves on.
Ultimately, the Chicago Sky vs. Indiana Fever “rivalry” just feels like a shallow marketing tactic to capitalize on two players’ college popularity that was then adopted by people who wanted an excuse to be mean. It doesn’t represent the true nature of sports competition. As WNBA fans, we need to let these rivalries develop naturally, and more importantly, avoid letting them get deeper than basketball.