Angel Reese has a knack for double-doubles and causing panic among racist crowds as she battles for WNBA Rookie of the Year honors

There’s almost half of the WNBA season left, and there are still two months to go. That’s enough time for a player to heat up or cool down, enough time to attain historic results or hit a brick wall. But why wait until the end when we are able to start talking about Rookie of the Year now?

Who do you’ve got?

Two clear favorites have emerged, and it’s no surprise that Indiana Fever point guard Caitlin Clark is the favorite over Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese. Clark was practically anointed MVP coming into the league, so winning the ROY title was a given. Overly effusive fans and media acted as if respiratory too hard on Clark ought to be considered a foul. Evil ones like Jason Whitlock suggest that so-called jealous players could conspire to defraud and increase Reese’s possibilities of winning the prize.

University of South Carolina coach Dawn Staley says Reese doesn’t need any help. “If I had to pick a Rookie of the Year right now, today… it would be Angel,” Staley said he told TMZ last weekend “Without a doubt, because of what she was able to accomplish with the double-double.”

During that point, Reese has recorded double-doubles (points and rebounds) in 15 consecutive games, a league record. That streak ended Saturday, but Reese began over Tuesday, scoring 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds against the defending champions in Las Vegas. Her streak of dominating the boards at LSU has remained intact, as she leads the league in rebounds (12 per game).

The “Chi-Town Barbie” has moved on from the Bayou, but she still does the dirty work down low, now often grunting and hitting larger, stronger players in the paint. But she dogthat may’t be taught or measured, and there’s no quit in her. In stark contrast to her off-the-court style, Reese plays in an unspectacular manner, occasionally missing close-range shots only to grab a rebound on her putback attempt.

Fans call it persistence, but critics call it filling in statistics. They might want to examine out NBA legend Moses Malone, nicknamed “The Chairman of the Boards,” who was a master at collecting his own foul balls. Using a backboard to create a follow-up shot might be the result of poor aim or timing, which is an appropriate explanation.

It’s true that Reese was chasing a statistic to secure a double-double with seconds left in a game that had already been decided. That happened last Saturday on Chicago’s final possession against the New York Liberty, which had a 14-point lead with 19 seconds left. In situations like that, losing teams typically dribble until time runs out, but Reese was frantically demanding the ball, needing a layup to attain 10 points. The Liberty surrounded her with 4 players, clearly uninterested allowing this streak to proceed.

If 4 players had gone after Clark to forestall her from reaching a personal milestone, they might have been called petty.

“Winning is the most important thing to me,” Reese said. “I think I’ve done a great job of being consistent and I’ve already broken the record. So I want to be able to just be myself and do whatever my teammates need me to do.”

There are not any logos of threes and pinpoint assists that fill Clark’s film, but that is life in the trenches. The work looks different there, where players pull it out of the mud. And nobody did it like Reese in breaking the double-double record by Chicago-based Candace Parker.

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The only player to win each ROY and MVP titles in the same season (2008), Parker is Reese’s favorite. She set her record as a 29-year-old in her eighth season. Reese shattered it as a 22-year-old rookie, braving the torrents racist hatred and venommostly from Clark fans. Their intensity in bullying Reese is unusual and unnecessary, especially since Clark is playing simply great, leading the league in assists, becoming the first rookie with triple double.

As the W enters a monthlong Olympic hiatus, Reese and Clark are set to be teammates on a rotating basis. They are the only newcomers on the WNBA team that may face Team USA in the All-Star Game on Saturday. Their every interaction might be scrutinized like a courtroom tape, with defense attorneys and prosecutors making claims about body language and facial gestures.

Clark will likely win ROY on merit, despite being a loss machine. Her most ardent fans will go nuts if she doesn’t, nevertheless it’s not unthinkable that Reese will win the award. There’s no telling what either player will do when the season resumes and, pray, they make the playoffs.

I won’t be mad if Reese lifts the trophy, because she’s a worthy candidate. I’m not proud of it, but there’s a certain charm to watching her haters go crazy.

Who do you’ve got?