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As the Paris Games come more into focus, we are getting down to the nitty-gritty with qualifications and team selections. According to the internet, the WNBA made a massive mistake by not selecting Caitlin Clark for their Olympic team.
There’s no need to pack your beret, Caitlin. You’re not invited. Caitlin Clark will not be on the prestigious team. She was only the number one overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, so there’s no need to invite her.
The 2024 Olympics are set to begin in just under two months in Paris. The women’s basketball tournament is sure to have plenty of attention on it when the teams arrive in Europe. Team USA is once again the favorite, and the Americans will be looking for an eighth consecutive gold medal.
Considering the depth of talent and the limited spots, Team USA’s Olympic squad is arguably the hardest basketball team to make in the world. Heading into the summer, one of the biggest questions was whether Caitlin Clark, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, would make the cut. – CBS Sports
Maybe it was because she was a rookie. I don’t know. However, Team USA has had rookies on its team before, and they have rookies on their team this time, too.
You know who else isn’t going? Angel Reese. A few news cycles ago, Angel Reese was in the clip shoving Caitlin Clark down to the ground. And she’s the one who’s also making the WNBA popular again—she wants you to know!
But people are upset that Caitlin Clark wasn’t considered for Team USA.
Rant incoming. – leaving Caitlin Clark off the women’s Olympic team is the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard pic.twitter.com/RXg0XwFwtN
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) June 8, 2024
I suppose El Presidente isn’t wrong. Although I could do without his misogynist tone.
Clark has brought unprecedented levels of attention to women’s college basketball. The 22-year-old has been a TV ratings monster over the last calendar year, breaking several viewership and attendance records from her Iowa senior season into her WNBA rookie season.
Several sports business pundits were quick to point out how Clark’s omission would negatively impact the interest surrounding the USA women’s basketball team at the Olympics and how that would affect NBC Sports’ TV ratings for the event. – Sporting News
Is it interesting that the Olympic team has chosen to take Brittney Griner, an un-American athlete who plays in the women’s league? Griner likes to take a knee during the National Anthem. Also, Griner spent time in a Russian gulag for getting caught with marijuana vapes in her luggage, trying to return home after playing in the off-season.
This does not diminish Griner’s court prowess. She played on Team USA in 2016 and 2020, so one could argue that she deserves a spot on the team again.
Griner has played overseas in the WNBA off-season. In the 2013–14 off-season, she played in China for the Zhejiang Golden Bulls of the WCBA where she signed a four-month contract for $600,000, which was 12 times the amount she made in her rookie season with the Mercury. She was named as the MVP of the 2014 WCBA All-Star Game. In the 2014–15 off-season, she played in China for the Beijing Great Wall of the WCBA. Beijing Great Wall finished the season as the runner-up in the playoff. – Wikipedia
So, who decided to leave Caitlin off the roster? I am sure it wasn’t just one person. You know, like the person who will be coaching Team USA?
Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who will coach Team USA this summer, reportedly wanted to go with a more veteran roster, according to reports. – New York Post
A more veteran roster. Okay, Cheryl. Earlier in May, the Minnesota Lynch coach threw some shade at Caitlin Clark in an X post.
ALSO in action tonight – @minnesotalynx vs @chicagosky 7pm CST. Though fans won’t be able to watch, #Lynx fans can go to the Lynx app to follow along via play by play. Or if you are in market, come to the game…as we start the season off right ✅#12teams #theWismorethanoneplayer https://t.co/Wp5vwt8ucK
— Cheryl Reeve (@LynxCoachReeve) May 3, 2024
Hashtag: the W is more than one player.
We’ll see if deciding not to invite Caitlin Clark will be a mistake. Team USA has already dominated the Olympic Games. USA owns nine gold medals, seven consecutively. So I think they’ll be fine. But the snub of Caitlin is still felt.
Feature Image: Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons/Paris 2024 Olympic rings licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license/edited in Canva Pro
I couldn’t care less about basketball in general – much less the women’s league. So I depend on those who do care to evaluate this. The consensus here is that they made an egregious mistake, both for team quality and in public relations. There are those who think this is petty vengeance – three of the five on the selection committee had their teams knocked out of the finals by Iowa, with Caitlin being the main factor – and then there are those that think it is simply bog-standard racism from a sport dominated by “POC.” Some think it’s both, of course.
They had BETTER get another gold medal, too – or the backlash will be monumental. (Not completely justified, things happen, but that won’t matter to the fans of the sport.)
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John Shepherd says: Ever here of Sabrina Ionescu? She was the college star before Caitlin Clark. She is a Romanian Orthodox Christian, white and straight. She married to the only person of Romanian extraction in the NFL. She also has slightly better stats than Clark. So the question is why isn’t she getting the grief that Clark is receiving? Time to question the existing narrative and dig a little deeper into the story.
John Shepherd says: And Ionescu made the Olympic team.
Hate_me says: From everything I’ve seen, she was the ONLY collegiate player invited to the Olympic training camp, which happened to fall on the same weekend as the NCAA championship – scheduled long before her team made it to the finals, and with specific note that her attendance would depended on how far her team made it.
Making an exception to invite her and only her from then-collegiate athletes, then she opts for the NCAA championship game (can’t blame her, but that was ultimately HER decision)… all with the intent to ultimately snub her? Sorry, that simply doesn’t pass the sniff test. She wasn’t snubbed, the timing simply didn’t work out.
From March 28: https://www.usab.com/news/2024/03/usa-basketball-womens-national-team-announces-april-training-camp-roster
I don’t give two shits about women’s (or men’s) basketball, but I do care about our nation’s Olympic selection process. There is no scandal, here.
Hate_me says: Why am I awaiting moderation? I’ve used much worse language in my posts in the past.
Is it due to my use of a different email address? My alma mater email finally expired this month, that’s all. The moderator can reach out via my new address if they need verification.
Kate says: I’m not sure about this one, but I didn’t put you there. I’ll look into it though. It’s probably your new address. One of your comments did have a link so it automatically goes to moderation to avoid spam.
Kate
Hate_me says: Ah, that explains it. Thanks. The link was simply to support my argument.
I’ll take the contrary comments as accurate – like I say, I don’t want to use time digging into this.
I will say that none of this justifies in any way her treatment so far on and off the court; this is more like rollerball than basketball.
Public perception, though, is going to be harsh, especially if they do NOT manage a gold medal this year. Possibly worse than the ladies soccer team, with that idiot Rapinoe and her crew of fellow idiots.
This perception will be somewhat justified, too – as noted, the America hating Griner was put on the team, with an absolutely abysmal recent performance record, that doesn’t indicate that she is still in any way an Olympic class player.
Small correction: “rollerblade,” not “rollerball.” Been a very long time since I watched that; my grandfather was for some reason a fan of that sport.
Hate_me says: I’m not saying it was the correct decision or that Ms. Clark is being treated fairly on the court (as a hockey guy, it’s nice seeing bodychecking allowed on the court), just that I see no conspiracy surrounding the Olympic team roster.
As for Convict Griner, no matter her personality or her limited performance thus far in the season, she is a proven talent in her profession. I can extend the benefit of the doubt that the selection committee decided she had enough time to recover between now and the Games.
As for the WNBA – I don’t care. It should be a complete non-factor. Personal, none of these girls should be eligible and the Olympics should still be a total amateur competition. “But the Soviets did it…” has never been an acceptable excuse for relaxing any standards.
Absolutely agree on the amateur point. That really is when I began losing any interest in most of the Olympics (the few that I would be interested in aren’t the ones that get on the TV).
Of course, for some sports, just how much “amateur” there is when it’s a multi-billion dollar industry for colleges is somewhat debatable. I was not surprised, although amused, when college athletes began forming unions.
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