Fans were disappointed earlier this week when Caitlin Clarkthe overall draft pick for the WNBA in the first round, was not on the U.S. women’s basketball team’s roster for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Now USA Basketball has responded.
Selection committee chairman Jen Rizzotti told the Associated Press that it all comes down to the criteria for choosing players. Experience played a role.
“And if you base your decision on criteria, there were other players who were harder to remove because they checked a lot more boxes,” Rizzotti said. “Then sometimes it comes down to position and playing style for Cheryl [Reeve] and then sometimes a mood.”
Clark, who has attracted millions of new viewers to both women’s basketball games and professional basketball games this year, said making the Olympic team is a dream and she now has something to work toward.
“Hopefully I can be there one day,” she told reporters after training on Sunday. “I think it’s just a little bit more motivation. Just remember that. Hopefully I can be there again in four years.”
She said she wasn’t disappointed and is excited for the women who put together the team.
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The team is a mix of players with individual skills, USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley told the AP.
“We have veterans, newcomers and people in the middle,” he said. “A good perspective and continuity are so important and that is why we have been successful at the Olympic Games.”
The Team USA women’s basketball team has won gold at every Olympic Games since 1988, except for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, when they took home bronze.
The six-member selection committee formed a team of players who have already won an Olympic or World Cup medal, according to USA Basketball.
Diana Taurasi, who played her first Olympic Games in Athens twenty years ago, returns for her sixth consecutive Olympic Games. Her Phoenix Mercury teammates Brittney Griner and Kahleah Copper join her on Team USA.
Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd and A’ja Wilson, all of whom have played in previous Olympics, were also part of the team. Sabrina Ionescu, Kelsey Plum, Alyssa Thomas and Jackie Young, all of whom have earned Olympic gold or World Cup gold medals for 3×3 events, were also selected. Plum and Young play on the 5×5 team.
Players like Clark and Ariel Atkins, who played at the Tokyo Olympics, and 2022 World Cup team members Shakira Austin, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Brionna Jones, could be brought to the Paris Olympics as alternates, according to the AP.
Still, fans were shocked when Clark – who is the all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader and is one of two players in WNBA history to have 150 points, 50 rebounds and 50 assists in their first 10 games – was left off the roster.
“Catlin Clark leaving the Woman’s USA @Olympics Team has to be one of the biggest misses in sports history,” one person wrote on social media.
“Caitlin Clark not playing with the Olympic team will lose them millions and millions of dollars. Wild. Her international publicity would be outrageous numbers. Very surprising they left her out,” wrote another.
“I don’t follow the WNBA nor do I know any of their names – EXCEPT Catlin Clark. The WNBA has missed eyes on watching the Olympic basketball games,” another person wrote.
However, some social media users pointed out that no WNBA rookies were selected. Clark also did not attend the Olympic training camp — which increases players’ chances of making the roster — because she was playing in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, CBS Sports reports.
