Sue Bird Picks Caitlin Clark over Angel Reese as Midseason WNBA Rookie of the Year

As the race for WNBA Rookie of the Year continues to swing back and forth between two candidates, Sue Bird is throwing her support behind Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark going into the All-Star break.

Appearing on Good Game with Sarah Spain—produced by iHeartPodcasts and part of the Women's Sports Audio Network—the WNBA legend picked Clark over Angel Reese for Rookie of the Year:

"Currently, first of all, I hate doing mid-season awards, right," Bird said. "Honestly, I've felt this way about MVP forever. People would say someone was MVP in the first two weeks and then in a weird way, it kept them in that conversation no matter what they did. So I've never been [a fan of mid-season awards], but currently Caitlin Clark."

While not exactly a full-throated endorsement for either player at this point, Bird is following the conventional wisdom.

Reese seemed to pull ahead in the race a couple of weeks ago thanks to her WNBA-record streak of 15 consecutive double-doubles that began on June 4. Her streak came to an end on July 13 when she was held to eight points in the Chicago Sky's 81-67 loss to the New York Liberty.

Since a June 16 game against the Sky, Clark has started to look a lot more comfortable. The 22-year-old averaged 18.8 points, 10.8 assists, 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals in her last 12 games before the All-Star break.

Clark has eight double-doubles during this span and she became the first rookie in league history with a triple-double in a win over the Liberty on July 6. She set a WNBA single-game record with 19 assists in the final game before the break against the Dallas Wings on Wednesday.

The Fever already have 11 wins in 26 games after not recording more than 13 victories in a season since 2016 (17-17). The Sky (10-14) are slightly off their pace from last season when they finished 18-22, but they are only percentage points behind Indiana for the No. 7 seed in the playoff race.

Clark and the Fever have won two of the first three meetings against Reese and the Sky this season. Their final regular-season matchup will be on Aug. 30 at Wintrust Arena.