‘It’s not just about Caitlin’: WNBA fans sucked in after dawn Staley, Flau’jae Johnson and more forced to watch Angel Reese’s debut game live on Instagram

Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso played for various teams during their standout college basketball careers.

Reese won the 2023 women’s college basketball championship with the LSU Tigers, and Cardoso and the South Carolina Gamecocks defeated Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes in April.

Now Reese and Cardoso have teamed up as rookies playing for the Chicago Sky. Although Clark’s preseason debut with the Indiana Fever was made available for viewing on the WNBA App on May 3, there have been some disruptions related to the published of the Reese-Cardoso game that took place on the identical day.

The WNBA apologized for its app flawed combination Sky’s preseason matchup with the Minnesota Lynx was available to watch and attempted to make clear its broadcast schedule, claiming that the Fever’s preseason opener was the one game the league planned to broadcast.

However, fans were still unhappy that the game was not easily accessible.

“Ridiculous” – one said the fan. “It really shouldn’t be that difficult to broadcast 11 preseason games.”

A fan from the Lynx home arena decided to step in and help bring the game to as many individuals as possible.

“Would you like me to try broadcasting the game here?” – asked user X @heyheyitsalli. “I don’t promise quality, but I can try.”

Then, on the spur of the moment, the social media user launched a live broadcast, which attracted an enormous audience.

Although the variety of viewers for the livestream fluctuated throughout the day, as of May 6, the video had over 600,000 total viewers and the post itself had 2.5 million views. On May 3, heyheyitsalli shared a screenshot showing that the live broadcast had attracted 173,381 viewers on the time.

“These are some of the WILDEST numbers, WOW” – them he wrote.

One of the live broadcast viewers was three-time national championship-winning coach Dawn Staley, who was tuned in to watch Kamilla Cardoso’s big game. She even he tipped Alli $100 for being gracious enough to pick up where the WNBA failed.

“I didn’t mind watching with friends. Let’s pick up hockey sticks to make changes,” Coach Stalley said.

Flau’jae was also spotted on the livestream, apparently cheering on her former teammate Angel Reese.

“Imagine your NCAA Championship-winning head coach @dawnstaley had to watch his player’s first game live on Instagram. But seriously, it’s so problematic and unacceptable that it’s a shame” – user X he tweeted. “You can’t think @WNBA something like this can happen again and lose support by the minute.”

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve shared the identical sentiment as many fans. During the postgame press conference, she said that times are changing, and while it’s comprehensible that the league wants to weigh costs and put money towards quality players, Caitlin Clark is not the one helpful WNBA player.

“Caitlin’s first game was certainly appreciated. I’m for it, I understand it. People want to see it, but they also want to see… it’s not just about Caitlin,” Reeve said.

She continued: “This is in no way Caitlin’s fault. Rather, it’s about knowing that there’s a widespread excitement about the WNBA that we haven’t seen before. So we have to leverage the potential to really make sure this is a movement.”

The WNBA has learned of the impressive numbers (and complaints), and Sky’s next preseason game, scheduled for May 7, will now be available via WNBA League Pass. Originally, it was not planned to be broadcast on television.

The match can be expected to be televised in local markets.