Dr. Molly Yanity
Professor and Director in the Department of Sports Media & Communication at the University of Rhode Island.
Email: molly.yanity@uri.edu
USA Basketball made the news official on June 11, 2024, but the rumors had been circulating for a week: Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) rookie sensation Caitlin Clark was not on the team that would compete for an eighth consecutive gold medal in Paris.
Clark had spent the better part of the last two years mesmerizing sports fans and transforming even the most casual among them into basketball—no, into women’s basketball—fans.
After leading her Iowa Hawkeyes team to the NCAA Championship game in 2023, Clark took them all on a breathtaking ride that witnessed her long-range shoot her way to the top of the NCAA all-time scoring list and ended in a second failed attempt at a national championship when her Iowa team ran into the South Carolina Gamecocks on April 7 in Cleveland, Ohio.
It is likely only Clark and her Hawkeyes viewed the two-season long run as a failure, however.
Every TV rating for women’s college basketball was left in the wake of that run. And it didn’t stop there.
When the Indiana Fever drafted Clark first in the 2024 WNBA draft a week after the NCAA title game, another TV ratings record fell. The Fever sold out its arena for home games. Attendance figures for the Fever’s away games set records. Viewership across media platform, merchandise sales, season-ticket numbers all exploded.
The nation embraced women’s basketball like it never had and the face at the center of it all was that of a thin, brash, pony-tailed young woman from the U.S. heartland.
Yet, when the national team roster was announced, Clark’s name was not on it.
The reaction was swift and emotional.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy asked in a two-minute rant on TikTok, “How dumb are these women?” of the selection committee, insisting that Clark’s popularity coupled with her talent should have landed her on the squad.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said on his First Take morning show, “You know good and goddamn well that with or without Caitlin Clark, they probably going (sic) to get the gold again. … This is about the idiocy of USA Basketball. How dare you make this decision? It’s stupid.”
Former Olympian and ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo countered their arguments. She told Mike Greenberg on ESPN’s Get Up: “When it comes to forming the women’s Olympic team, it’s a three-year process.”
Lobo had a more reasoned, nuanced approach to the matter compared to the soundbyte-seeking gentlemen.
Team chemistry mattered. Winning the gold medal mattered. Experience on the national stage mattered. But some other things mattered, too – namely, like letting Clark get some rest after a two-year sprint, for example, Lobo contended.
Half of the 12 players that made the squad had eight or more seasons in the WNBA. The least experienced player was Sabrina Ionescu, a player with a toolbox much like Clark’s – slick passing skills, consistent 3-point shooting, an athlete who can play the one or two. Ionescu, interestingly, played a limited role in Paris. She finished the tournament with the fourth-fewest minutes (13.2 per game) on her team. Among those behind her were women who play the same position: Jewel Loyd and Diana Taurasi, the latter of whom was the U.S.’ oldest player at 42.
The omission seemed to make sense from a practical standpoint. Still, so many fans wanted to see Clark in the spectacle of the Olympics. One fan even compared Clark to Google stock on Reddit, suggesting we get in the action as soon as possible.
The fans had a point; they simply wanted to see this young juggernaut on the global scene.
Smith was right; the U.S. won its eighth consecutive gold medal and its 61st consecutive win in the Olympics.
Lobo was right, too. Clark rested and roared back into the WNBA schedule after the Olympics break. Prior to the break, she averaged 16.8 points and 6.3 assists per game. The first five games back she was on fire, averaging 22.6 and 7.8.
Portnoy, however, split the difference. On one hand, USA Basketball showed out just fine. The gold-medal game against France drew 7.8 million viewers on NBC and Peacock in the U.S. with a tipoff time of 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time and 6:30 a.m. on the west coast. It peaked at 10.9 million views for the final hour, The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch reported. But it was a far cry from the highest viewed Olympics game, which took place in the U.S. in 1996. The Aug. 6 gold-medal game from Atlanta netted more than twice as many viewers (23.4 million) of the team that launched the WNBA and began that 61-game winning streak.
Was Clark needed? Certainly not. Was she wanted? Very likely.
The only thing we know for certain is that we will likely find out in 2028.
