USA Basketball's expected decision to leave Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark off the roster for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris received questions Saturday morning, but a report shed some light on the decision.
Citing two sources, USA Today columnist Christine Brennan reported that one factor in omitting Clark from the women's national team was concern about how the former Iowa star's fans would react to her playing time in the Olympics, which It probably would have been limited.
Caitlin Clark at the WNBA Draft at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 15, 2024 in New York, NY (Cora Veltman/Sportico via Getty Images)
Brennan described those sources as “American basketball veterans with decades of experience in the women's game.”
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Reports of the decision were met with fierce reaction on social media and, as Brennan points out, seemingly confirmed the narrative that not everyone in the WNBA He is pleased with Clark's popularity.
“If true, it would be an extraordinary admission of the existence of real tension that women's basketball's old guard harbors over this multimillion-dollar sensation,” Brennan wrote of the sources' knowledge.
Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark during the 2024 Commissioner's Cup game against the New York Liberty on June 2, 2024, in Brooklyn, NY (Catalina Fragoso/NBAE via Getty Images)
WNBA STAR CAITLIN CLARK EXPECTED TO BE LEFT FROM TEAM USA'S OLYMPIC ROSTER: REPORTS
Clark was invited to the national team's training camp in April, but due to the Iowa Hawkeyes' success in reaching the women's finals of the NCAA tournament, she was unable to attend.
Nine other Olympians were invited to the camp, including five-time gold medalist Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury, who is expected to return. Her Fever teammate Aliyah Boston was also invited to join the national team's training roster in April.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark brings the ball up the court against the Chicago sky on June 1, 2024 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. (Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Clark has won three gold medals with the USA Basketball Youth National Teams, including most recently with the 2021 USA Under-19 Women's National Team.
American women have won every gold medal in women's basketball since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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