You might love Caitlin Clarke. You may hate Caitlin Clarke. You may love his Iowa roots. You may hate his Iowa roots. You can like him because he’s white, or dislike him because he’s white. The same goes for being straight. You can love or hate the media’s fascination with him. You can love historic TV ratings and sell-out crowds, or hate them. You may love his interviews, or hate them.
Caitlin Clark-But there is one thing we all know to be true:
With Caitlin Clark on the 2024 US Olympic women’s basketball team, players I’ve covered who have been largely ignored by the sports media at every Summer Olympic basketball Games since 1984 will finally get the spotlight they deserve with a national and global audience.
Going into the games with national sensation Clark on the roster, I think the top stories for Americans (and several international reporters) in Paris would have been: 1. Simone Biles, 2. Katie Ledecky 3. Kaitlyn Clark.
Caitlin Clark-Maybe you could add an athlete or team or 2 here or there, US women’s soccer, US men’s basketball, take your pick, but that’s the general idea. As Clark continued to set records for TV ratings and attendance in her eye-popping first month in the WNBA, like NCAA basketball, it was inevitable:
She would lead U.S. women’s basketball to a place it so deserved but never achieved — broadcasters and news Coverage of the organizations not only in the United States, but around the world, made daily headlines, and most importantly, greatly increased respect from the still male-dominated international sports media that for decades focused almost exclusively on men from the United States. The women’s basketball team, which is so good, hasn’t lost since 1992.
But to follow Clark is to follow much more than Clark. He would introduce those Olympic viewers and readers — many of whom are not fans of the big game and have never seen a women’s Olympic basketball game — to the entire U.S. team.
You haven’t seen Brenna Stewart on one of her two previous Olympic teams? You’re seeing him this summer because America’s interest and even obsession with Clark would have brought you there. Same goes for Britney Griner, assuming she’s healthy.
But Caitlin Clark is not coming to Paris, unless someone withdraws or is injured. Clark will bring the casual sports fan who fell in love with him in Iowa and now knows the difference between ION and Prime to finally and properly.
He won’t be there, so those fans won’t be there, because they’re never there. And one can only imagine Clark’s global appeal as writers and reporters from around the world came and watched a few Logo 3s fall from the sky and hundreds more autographs were recorded for posterity.
It is likely that little girls from Europe and Africa entered the same way as girls from America. That’s not happening anymore, and it’s all down to USA Basketball, whose mission statement interestingly includes “promoting, growing and improving the game at all levels.” (Seems to be Caitlin Clarke’s job description these days.)
Because this great opportunity to promote international women’s basketball is eliminated, most broadcasters and reporters will always be able to focus on the swimmers and gymnasts and runners and leave the US women’s basketball team alone.
I saw all this happening in real time. I covered at least five of the USA women’s gold-medal basketball games at the Olympics, plus countless other women’s basketball stories at the five summer games I attended. When I look around and see a half-empty press tribune and wonder why, the answer I always get from my colleagues is that Americans are too good for their own good. People already know they will win. And they are right.
But there’s something weirder and potentially more impactful surrounding Clark’s snub. Two sources, both longtime U.S. basketball veterans with decades of experience in the women’s game, told me Friday that concern about how Clark’s millions of fans would react to limited playing time.
If true, it would be a remarkable acknowledgment of the existence of real excitement that harbors the old guard of women’s basketball for this multi-million-dollar sensation. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
But if players and USA Basketball officials think that not having Caitlin Clark in Paris means people won’t talk about Clark in their neighborhood, well, that’s not going to happen. It’s certain that one of the first questions they’ll get at their opening press conference at the Games will be: “Why isn’t Caitlin Clarke here?”
And if the team is missing 3, or has a scare, or doesn’t play well, or, horror, loses, Clarke’s name won’t be far behind and will likely become ubiquitous on the home front.
Speaking of 3, there seems to be a perception that Clarke doesn’t deserve to be in the team on merit. That’s ridiculous. First, the decision is subjective, so you can make a case for almost everyone.
But how about some statistics? Caitlin Clarke is 13th in the WNBA in points per game. (Taurasi is 15th.) Caitlin Clarke is 4th in assists per game. (Sabrina Ionescu, 8th; Kelsey Plum, 11th; and Jewel Lloyd, 14th, are all on the roster for the Olympic team). Clark is second in 3-pointers, two ahead of Taurasi.
Taurasi became the first rookie and only fourth player in the league to record 30 points, five rebounds, five assists, three steals and three blocks in a game, joining Stewart and Angel McCaughtry.
Just hours before learning she would not be on the Olympic team, Caitlin Clark hit a WNBA rookie record-tying seven 3’s and scored 30 points in front of the largest WNBA crowd in 17 years more than double the crowd in Chicago at the same arena. Painted the night before. She became the first player in WNBA history with 200 points and 75 assists in the first 12 games of her career.
And then USA Basketball dropped him.
Caitlin Clark did all of this while facing some of the statistically scariest defensive pressures in the league. No one has gotten the kind of attention he has as a rookie. He’s not the best player in the league, but he’s clearly the most important.
Never given a real chance to try out — USA Basketball arbitrarily scheduled her tryouts during the women’s Final Four, when she led Iowa to the national title game for the second straight season — Clark has now been told by USA Basketball’s national governing body a simple word: no.
No, Caitlin Clark, we don’t want you on our Olympic team.
I’ve seen some bad team and athlete selection decisions in 40 years of covering the Olympics, but this is by far the worst. Then again, we probably shouldn’t be surprised. As we’ve known for years, the last amateurs run them at the Olympic Games.