Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese make pro debut as WNBA preseason ...

Caitlin Clark's salary highlights pay disparity between NBA and WNBA 02:06

WNBA fever is in the air, and fans are finally got to see Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese suit up as professionals for the first time Friday night as the brief league preseason begins. Clark and Reese were standouts in college, with the former breaking the NCAA Division I scoring record, and the latter setting another NCAA record en route to a championship in 2023.

Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever drives to the basket against the Dallas Wings during the first quarter of a WNBA preseason game at College Park Center on May 3, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. Getty Images

Both games tipped off at 8 p.m., streaming for free on the WNBA app with Clark's Indiana Fever taking on the Dallas Wings and Reese's Chicago Sky playing the Minnesota Lynx. The Wings announced on social media last week that tickets to the game in Arlington had sold out. Clark, the first overall pick in this year's WNBA draft, will be coming to town alongside Aaliyah Boston, last year's top draft pick and unanimous rookie of the year.

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese at the WNBA Draft held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 15, 2024 in New York, New York. Cora Veltman/Sportico via Getty Images

The Fever have not made the playoffs since 2016, and currently sit in the ninth spot in CBS Sports' power rankings. The Sky, who drafted Reese with the seventh pick, rank dead last out of the 12 WNBA teams. Reese's LSU, the 2023 women's basketball champion, was eliminated by Clark in this year's college tournament.

Reese isn't the only rookie Chicago is hoping will turn their team around. The team spent the third pick on 6-foot-7 Kamilla Cardoso, who led the University of South Carolina to a championship over Clark's Hawkeyes in April.

Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes shoots the ball while defended by Angel Reese #10 of the LSU Tigers during the finals of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament in April. / Getty Images

Dawn Staley, Cardoso's coach, credited Clark as the "sole reason" why viewership in women's basketball has grown recently in an interview with 670 The Score last month. The championship game netted 18.9 million viewers per ESPN, the most viewed college basketball game ever on the network.

"She's the greatest of her time. I want women's basketball to grow, and I'm not too shy about saying why it grows. She's made it grow over the past two years," Staley said in the interview.

The WNBA preseason will continue until next Friday, with the regular season tip-off on May 14.

In: Chicago WNBA Women's Basketball Indiana Basketball Caitlin Clark