United States ladies’s basketball has a case as probably the most dominant staff on the Olympics in any sport. Team USA has gained seven straight gold medals in ladies’s basketball. It hasn’t misplaced a sport within the Olympics since 1992. The U.S. has gained its gold medal sport by a median of twenty-two factors over the past seven Olympics, and none of these video games has been determined by single-digits.
With the WNBA nonetheless comparatively in its infancy in its twenty eighth season, making the Olympic staff is usually thought of the very best honor within the profession of a ladies’s basketball participant. Many of the best gamers within the historical past of the sport have gained gold with Team USA, from Cheryl Miller to Lisa Leslie to Tamika Catchings to Maya Moore to Diana Taurasi to Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson.
Caitlin Clark goes to hitch that checklist in the future. She’s simply not deserving of that honor but.
Team USA announced the 12-player roster for 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday, and it has a case to be probably the most proficient group this system has ever put collectively. Stewart and Wilson are the headliners as the 2 finest gamers on this planet. Napheesa Collier and Alyssa Thomas make the roster after being named First-Team All-WNBA final season. Jewell Loyd, Sabrina Ionescu, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young every made Second-Team All-WNBA final season. Add in Kelsey Plum (First-Team All-WNBA in 2022) and the legend Taurasi, and Team USA has the makings of an all-time nice roster.
Of course, the headline information from the roster announcement was who didn’t make the staff. That can be Clark, who was left off throughout her rookie 12 months simply months after after being drafted into the league.
Clark is probably the most well-known ladies’s basketball participant on the planet — and one of the crucial well-known athletes on this planet, full cease. She earned that distinction based mostly on her electrical school profession, the place she broke the all-time NCAA scoring document (for males or ladies) whereas main Iowa to the 2 Final Four appearances. Clark has introduced a brand new stage of consideration to the WNBA since being drafted, however not all the discourse surrounding her younger profession has been in good religion.
It is smart that individuals need to watch Clark on the largest stage in ladies’s basketball, however giving her a spot on this staff with out benefit wouldn’t have been honest to the opposite gamers who waited their flip and earned a spot by way of their play. Here’s why Clark didn’t deserve a spot on Team USA simply but.
Caitlin Clark shouldn’t be one of many 12 finest American gamers but
If you’re including Clark to the staff, who’re you taking off?
- A’ja Wilson
- Breanna Stewart
- Diana Taurasi
- Brittney Griner
- Alyssa Thomas
- Napheesa Collier
- Jewell Loyd
- Kelsey Plum
- Jackie Young
- Sabrina Ionescu
- Chelsea Gray
- Kahleah Copper
Taurasi is the one participant who doesn’t have a case to be on the staff based mostly on benefit. She’s additionally arguably the best American participant of all-time, has 5 gold medals to her identify, and is one thing of the non secular chief of the staff at age-41.
Everyone else on the roster fills a staff want: Griner for dimension and protection, Thomas for her all-around sport on the ahead spot, Copper for her rim stress and wing scoring, Gray for her playmaking, Ionescu her taking pictures, and many others.
There are not any gamers as younger as Clark on the staff
The youngest gamers on the roster are Ionescu and Young, who’re every 26 years outdated. Young was the No. 1 decide within the 2019 WNBA Draft out of Notre Dame, whereas Ionescu was the primary decide within the 2020 draft out of Oregon.
Clark is just 22 years outdated. As the No. 1 decide within the 2024 draft, she has to attend her flip for a spot to open up on the roster. That will occur by the subsequent Olympic video games in 2028, and even then she is going to nonetheless be among the many youngest gamers on the staff in all chance.
FIBA play is often extra bodily than the NBA/WNBA, and if there’s one space of the sport Clark struggles with proper now, it’s physicality. That’s to be anticipated for a 22-year-old who nonetheless wants so as to add muscle to her body. It will occur over time, but it surely hasn’t occurred but.
Team USA already has too many guards
The backcourt for Team USA is stacked: Plum brings pace and taking pictures, Loyd brings two-way toughness and three-level scoring, Ionescu is a jumbo playmaker and knockdown shooter, and Gray is a Point God stage facilitator. That’s 5 guards on the 12-woman roster with out together with Kahleah Copper, who can play the 2 or the three.
There are greater snubs than Clark
Arike Ogunbowale has a case for the largest snub on Team USA. The 27-year-old is at present No. 2 within the WNBA in scoring at 26.6 factors per sport. Ogunbowale has been a stud for years within the league, and nonetheless couldn’t crack the 12-person roster.
Rhyne Howard, a proficient wing scorer who was the No. 1 decide within the 2022 draft, additionally didn’t make the roster. Making Team USA is tough!
Team USA is aware of what it’s doing
Once once more, the United States hasn’t misplaced a ladies’s basketball sport on the Olympics since 1992! The leaders of this system know the best way to put collectively a successful staff, and their judgement shouldn’t be questioned.
It’s superior that extra persons are watching ladies’s basketball due to Clark. She’s an exhilarating participant, and is already an excellent WNBA guard. But she’s not one of many 12-best American gamers simply but at 22 years outdated.
If you already know something about Clark, you already know that getting reduce from Team USA in highschool was the beginning of her celebrity explosion within the basketball world. We can’t wait to see how she makes use of this “snub” to gas her over the subsequent 4 years.
