Joy Taylor: Caitlin Clark became famous thanks to Angel Reese moment

Fox Sports host Joy Taylor went off on a Caitlin Clark–Angel Reese tangent this week, saying Clark became famous due to the rivalry with Reese in college. The viral moment from their national championship showdown, where LSU beat Iowa, showed Reese doing Clark’s version of the “you can’t see me” celebration.

Reese did it in Clark’s face as LSU celebrated the title. That moment went viral and like Taylor does, virtually everyone watches when the two square off in the WNBA these days.

But despite Clark’s global appeal, Taylor argued Reese is the reason why the former Hawkeye is as famous as she is. Her take can be read below and well, it’s something.

“[The Clark vs. Reese rivalry] has now spun into this thing where, like, Caitlin is better than Angel, and blah blah blah,” Taylor said on The Joe Budden Podcast. “I just said that we would not be talking about Caitlin Clark the way that we do if it wasn’t for that moment with Angel Reese. And I will die on this hill. I will die on this hill.”

She will die on that hill, so there’s really no convincing Taylor, who hosts Speak on FS1, a debate show nonetheless, featuring Keyshawn Johnson and Paul Pierce. But based on WNBA ratings, Clark is the needle mover.

How did she become that popular? Well, according to Taylor it’s because of Reese beating her in college. She doesn’t want to hear the narrative of people would’ve talked about and watched Clark play basketball anyway.

“It’s crazy to me, every time I bring this up, they’re like, ‘Angel’s not better. We would’ve been talking about her anyway. ‘No the (expletive) you wouldn’t. You (expletive) wouldn’t,” Taylor said. “And the reason you wouldn’t is I do this every goddamn day. I know what we talk about on my show. We were not doing WNBA topic — whole 15-minute segments — on the (expletive) show until that happened.”

Taylor does have a point. Her show wasn’t doing the WNBA at that time, considering both Clark and Reese were still playing college basketball. But at that time, Clark was setting records and went on to become college basketball’s all-time leading scorer and played another season of college basketball. Reese, a stout defensive player in her own right, rose to superstardom after that game.

But Clark was moving the needle in women’s college basketball in terms of the ratings of which little players, or even none, have done before in the mainstream. Suddenly, debate shows across ESPN and other networks were talking about women’s basketball.

Now, the WNBA is a regular topic when discussing how great Clark is because she was “the Steph Curry” of women’s college basketball while in Iowa City. But Taylor knows what she knows and she’ll stick to it, as she pointed out on Budden’s podcast.

“(Expletive) off,” Taylor said. “I know what I’m talking about. It’s not about saying that Angel’s better than Caitlin or that Caitlin wouldn’t be a great player. It’s principle storytelling. I’m not making this up. I know what I’m talking about.”

The 2025 WNBA season debut for Clark vs. Reese made ratings history for ESPN. The four-letter network recently announced that the game between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever averaged 2.7 million viewers with a peak of 3.1 million. It was the most-watched WNBA game ever on ESPN platforms, including regular season and postseason games.

So maybe Taylor has some merit when talking about Reese. But hosting a TV show, she should be aware of the ratings. Those ratings involving women’s basketball? They dropped by more than half when Clark was out due to injury, down 55% for nationally televised games and down 53% for Indiana Fever national TV games, per USA Today.