Sports activities critics provided blended reactions to stories that Caitlin Clark is not going to be heading to Paris to affix the U.S. ladies’s basketball crew on the Olympics this summer season.
The Indiana Fever rookie — the all-time NCAA Division I basketball scoring chief — didn’t make the 12-player roster in a 12 months the place Group USA veterans comparable to Phoenix Mercury stars Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi, New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson made the lower, in accordance with a number of shops.
Others making the ladies’s squad embody Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, Mercury’s Kahleah Copper, Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu, Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd, Connecticut Solar’s Alyssa Thomas in addition to Aces’ Chelsea Grey, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Younger.
Clark ― the No. 1 choose within the 2024 WNBA draft who joined the league forward of a notable progress in recognition ― would have been the fifth league rookie to make the Olympic crew, a transfer that Sylvia Fowles, Candace Parker, Stewart and Taurasi all made in prior years.
Sources informed USA In the present day’s Christine Brennan that concern over how Clark’s large fanbase would reply to “what would possible be restricted enjoying time” on the veteran-heavy Group USA roster performed a job within the determination.
Group USA, which has received the gold medal at each summer season Olympics since 1996, are anticipated to repeat in Paris.
Sports activities commentator Mike Lupica slammed the choice to depart Clark off the roster on social media, calling it “monumentally dumb.”
“It have to be comforting to Caitlin Clark at present that individuals who’ve been chirping at her since she acquired to the WNBA now assume her being left off the Olympic crew is known as a good factor for her,” he wrote.
“The blowback on this younger lady continues to be wonderful.”
ESPN’s Linda Cohn, in a submit responding to a Fever-Washington Mystics recreation that lately drew over 20,000 followers, referred to as the choice a “misplaced alternative.”
“All she does is develop the sport, pack arenas, and set rookie information. What a brief sighted determination,” Cohn wrote.
Jemele Hill wrote that Clark not being on the Group USA roster “is definitely factor” for her.
“Within the span of weeks, she went from enjoying school ball, to turning into an expert, to having a grind of schedule. A multi-week break most likely isn’t the worst factor on this planet. She’s going to ultimately make an Olympic crew,” Hill wrote.
She wrote that individuals have to “cease panicking” and famous that the league may have Clark “for a very long time.”
“Her recognition isn’t going wherever. The league isn’t going to fall off a cliff if she’s not on the crew, and each single determination can’t be about placating the optics round one participant,” she wrote.
You may try extra takes on Clark not making the Olympic crew under.