WNBA teams should be co-branded with NBA teams, reporter says: 'Why force people to learn about the Fever?'

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The highly anticipated WNBA regular season debuts of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink and others continue to make women's basketball a hot topic in the sports world.

During the latest edition of "The Bill Simmons Podcast," former NBA beat writer and current "House of Strauss" author Ethan Strauss joined Simmons to share some of his ideas on how the WNBA can build on the unprecedented interest in its league. 

Strauss suggested that one of the WNBA's past shortcomings revolves around how the league decided to brand its teams.

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A detail of the WNBA logo is seen on a basketball during warmups between the Seattle Storm and the Connecticut Sun at Climate Pledge Arena on June 20, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Strauss suggested that assigning names to WNBA franchises that are completely separate from the NBA team that plays in a given market has been a disservice to the fans and ultimately slowed the growth of professional women's basketball in the US.

WNBA SET TO HAVE FULL-TIME CHARTER FLIGHTS FOR TEAMS BEGINNING THIS SEASON

A view of the Wilson ball before the 2023 WNBA Draft on April 10, 2023 at Spring Studios in New York, New York.  (Michelle Farsi/NBAE via Getty Images)

"The one thing they should’ve done — and maybe there’s still time to do it — that they didn’t do from the outset is just use the same team names," Strauss said. "Like, why force people to learn about the Fever? Why not just have the ‘W Pacers’? I think that makes it so much easier to just resonate and cut across."

"Like how in college, how it will be ‘the Lady Gamecocks,'"