Caitlin Clark left off USA Roster

[dockingsched]

Personally, I'm kind of glad. Now, when we watch the games it will be US Vs. the opposing team rather than Caitlan Clark Vs. the opposing team. If the NCAA tournament was any indication of what the Olympics would be like, than I'm glad for this decision. I want to be able to enjoy watching the US Women's team instead of the Caitlan Clark show.

Sadly you'll be in the minority as very few watched women's basketball before she came onto the scene. There was a reason why women basketball players were crying about equal pay to the men while rest of the world was laughing at them lol.

To be fair they never argued for equal pay to men, more about the finer details like the way the revenue was calculated and the share of it that they were entitled to. But I’m guessing people that “laughed” at them weren’t listening anyway.

[DimesandKnicks]

She missed the tryout; this is a non-story

[puny]

Were you up in arms when Christian Laetner made the Dream Team.

Yes. Freakin' Duke.

[Laimbeer]

When did we start picking who makes Team USA roster spots based on popularity? The goal is to win gold which is what the USA women's team has done 7 straight times. Everything else comes second.

This is a such a nonstory. Anyone that's been paying attention to women's basketball knew she wasn't going to be on the team since she didn't go to a single Team USA training camp because she was in the Final Four.

Even then, Caitlin is not one of the 12 best players in the W. The Team USA roster is absolutely loaded. Who should she have gotten in over? I only see an argument against 41 year old Diana Taurasi and she's a legend they were never booting her off the team. But if that argument does nothing for you, then what about Arike Ogunbowale who has a beef over both Taurasi and Clark. She's the league's second leading scoring (26/5/4) averaging 10 more ppg than both of them and she's not going either.

The CC fanboys gotta relax, there is no "racist conspiracy" or whatever, it's just not Caitlin's time yet.

If you make an exception for Diana then why not Clark? She has done more to create interest in women's basketball than Diana has done her entire life.

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[Capn'O]

Her fan base are like Swifties. Let her build up.

Were you up in arms when Christian Laetner made the Dream Team.

Yes. Freakin' Duke.

Shaq (and Zeke) was snubbed!

[shrink]

But, how often are rookies are on the roster? I could be wrong, but there hasn't been many rookies on such. Roster spots are pretty limited.

None last time, but Breanna Stewart was on the Olympic roster in 2016 at age 21, as a rookie for the Seattle Storm. Clark is 22.

[Wolfgang630]

So dumb

[Tor_Raps]

This thread is illustrating exactly why she should be on the team:

- die hard women’s fans who are trying to correct people (they are watching anyways)

- casuals who are saying they are watching bc of CC


Diana Taurasi is a freakin dinosaur. It’s laughable to include her over CC when they are winning the gold regardless

Ya let's be real... when has a WNBA topic gained this much response and not laughed off this board before?

I'm a massive basketball fan who just couldn't stand watching the wnba for various reasons. Clark has made me watch more women's basketball than everything else before it combined.

[Joshyjess]

Personally, I'm kind of glad. Now, when we watch the games it will be US Vs. the opposing team rather than Caitlan Clark Vs. the opposing team. If the NCAA tournament was any indication of what the Olympics would be like, than I'm glad for this decision. I want to be able to enjoy watching the US Women's team instead of the Caitlan Clark show.

Sadly you'll be in the minority as very few watched women's basketball before she came onto the scene. There was a reason why women basketball players were crying about equal pay to the men while rest of the world was laughing at them lol.

I agree that not many watch women's basketball (even now with Clark out there, I still wouldn't spend more than a minute or two watching an WNBA game before changing the station), and that she definitely brought some much needed attention to the Woman's NCAA tournament - as much as I get sick and tired of hearing her name every ten seconds.
However, I think the Women's Olympic Team is different. Even though I never watch the WNBA, I try not to miss a single game of the Women's Olympic games. Maybe it's just more of a national pride kind of thing, but I enjoy watching the Women's Olympic team going for the gold almost as much as I do watching the men's team. Adding what I think would be a huge distraction to the games (Clark) would only make it harder for me to enjoy the USWNT as opposed to making it more fun. I want to focus on watching the team, not have to listen to the commentators gush over a single player for the whole game.
I am in no way dismissing the amount of talent that Clark has, or the fact that she would most likely make the US team even better, but I think the level of distraction around her would actually take away from the games as opposed to adding to them.
Hopefully she will continue to get better, and in four years play on the team then (and maybe by then the media frenzy around her will have died down so we can just enjoy watching her play without having her persona crammed down our throats all the time).

[Pointgod]

This is a non story and part of the outrage porn around Caitlin Clark. Rookies, even hyped rookies get left off Olympic teams all the time.

[Tor_Raps]

Personally, I'm kind of glad. Now, when we watch the games it will be US Vs. the opposing team rather than Caitlan Clark Vs. the opposing team. If the NCAA tournament was any indication of what the Olympics would be like, than I'm glad for this decision. I want to be able to enjoy watching the US Women's team instead of the Caitlan Clark show.

Sadly you'll be in the minority as very few watched women's basketball before she came onto the scene. There was a reason why women basketball players were crying about equal pay to the men while rest of the world was laughing at them lol.

To be fair they never argued for equal pay to men, more about the finer details like the way the revenue was calculated and the share of it that they were entitled to. But I’m guessing people that “laughed” at them weren’t listening anyway.

You're wrong. Many wnba players thought they should be earning closer to what the men are. There are many clips on YouTube laughing at their stupidity and not understanding how finances work lol.

[Tor_Raps]

She missed the tryout; this is a non-story

She was excused for missing the training camp since she was playing in the ncaa tournament...

[mattg]

Beyond being a WNBA legend and staple of Team USA for two decades, Diana Taurasi is an incredibly stable presence who largely doesn't make mistakes on the court. I like Caitlin Clark a ton, but she is pretty streaky, is suspect defensively, and is a turnover machine. I would love for her to have a spot on the team to develop, but if you are trying to win on the international stage, Taurasi is a far safer pick.

Team USA isn't an automatic lock to win. During the 2020 Japan Olympics, these were their margins of victory:
Group B:
Nigeria: +9
Japan: +17
France: +11
Knockout Stage:
Australia: +24
Serbia: +20
Japan: +15

Is it likely that the United States will lose? Not particuarly. That said, 2020 results were far closer than 2016, and the rest of the world is slowly starting to catch up in talent. Dumping a highly reliable player who could provide a very stable 10-15 minutes in the 2024 Olympics for a rookie who didn't make the Team USA practices this year is questionable.

LOL. If Team USA is trying to win all they have to do is show up. Acting like it's even potentially in doubt or that Team USA needs Taurasi's calming presence is patently RIDICULOUS ASF. Literally could plug any WNBA PG in her spot and the team doesn't miss a beat because they are so far beyond their opponents.

Even if you think Clark doesn't deserve it, Taurasi 100% doesn't deserve to be on the team. It's strictly her padding her resume with accomplishments and also the clique-y-ness of the WNBA rearing it's ugly head. Every men's team worldwide puts their top young prospects on their senior national team even when they don't yet deserve it to give them experience and to develop them (and men's basketball is actually competitive unlike women's). Yet Team USA Women, who could literally get away with randomly selecting their roster and still win gold due to the talent mismatch, actively choose not to put their most exciting and best prospect in years on the their team. It's suspect at best from a developmental standpoint, and obvious as hell there is political undertones with other players.

[jkvonny]

But, how often are rookies are on the roster? I could be wrong, but there hasn't been many rookies on such. Roster spots are pretty limited.

None last time, but Breanna Stewart was on the Olympic roster in 2016 at age 21, as a rookie for the Seattle Storm. Clark is 22.

Ok.

Interesting. Thanks.

[Tor_Raps]

Another factor is that Clark is a 4 year college player so calling her a rookie isn't the same as calling Lebron a rookie who came out of high school. That's if you're comparing this to the men's national team.

[DimesandKnicks]

She missed the tryout; this is a non-story

She was excused for missing the training camp since she was playing in the ncaa tournament...

According to what? And being excused doesn’t give you a red carpet to a team that others participated in manual training camps to be involved in.

[Lalouie]

i think a lot of posters here don't get what playing for the usa in the olympics means to ALL these athletes

[sikma42]

This thread is illustrating exactly why she should be on the team:

- die hard women’s fans who are trying to correct people (they are watching anyways)

- casuals who are saying they are watching bc of CC


Diana Taurasi is a freakin dinosaur. It’s laughable to include her over CC when they are winning the gold regardless

That’s not CC’s competition. It was Jackie Young/Kelsey Plum/Sabrina/Chelsea Gray. I haven’t seen Chelsea bc she has been hurt. But she def isn’t better than the other 3. And from what I hear Gray is better too.

It’s like adding a high volume, bad defender, turnover prone pg to a superstar team. They aren’t going to run the CC Iowa offense either.

From a basketball perspective, there are a ton of reasons that they went with these guards.

You could bring CC, but it wouldn’t be to make the team better, it would be for ratings. That’s a legit argument, but let’s not conflate the two.


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[cupcakesnake]

The arguments I’ve seen for why Clark was left off the roster don’t line up with why Taurasi made it ahead of her. Clark should be in instead of Taurasi.

Right you can argue merit in either direction but these are pretty different issues. Taurasi is on the team as a legend a 6-time gold medal winner. Neither Taurasi or Clark are really high-level WNBA players right this second, but leaving off young players and including older players, there are different reasons for that and often one comes at the expense of the other.

The NBA analogue here is like when they included broken down Larry Bird but no Shaq. Except Shaq was a dominant player, so it's more like if Lebron was more washed and they included him instead of Scoot Henderson?

Clark is struggling in the W so far.

[shrink]

She missed the tryout; this is a non-story

She was excused for missing the training camp since she was playing in the ncaa tournament...

According to what? And being excused doesn’t give you a red carpet to a team that others participated in manual training camps to be involved in.

In case you weren’t aware, Clark has played for Team USA for years in younger age group competitions. She only missed try outs because she was carrying a mediocre Iowa team to the Final Four, and that success should be rewarded, not be punished. Finally, Team USA already said that missing the try outs was fine, and they would use her first month of WNBA play as the try out.

-1 Not sure what a “manual” training camp is, but all of the Team USA players have been playing on their own WNBA teams.

A more reasonable position would be that her first month of WNBA play was a failed audition, though I disagree.