Many believe that Caitlin Clark deserved a spot on the U.S. women’s basketball Olympic team this summer.
One of the key figures involved in assembling the roster has provided some new insights into the controversial decision.
Dawn Staley, the head coach of South Carolina, won a gold medal as the coach of Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and was a member of the selection committee for this year’s team in Paris. In an interview with NBC’s Mike Tirico on Sunday, Staley addressed the decision to leave Clark off the roster.
Staley suggested that circumstances might have led to a different outcome if the decision were made now.
“As a committee member, you’re charged with putting together the best team of players, the best talent. Caitlin is just a rookie in the WNBA. She wasn’t playing badly, but she wasn’t playing like she’s playing now,” Staley said. “If we had to do it all over again, the way that she’s playing, she would be in really high consideration for making the team because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people, shooting the ball extremely well. She is an elite passer. She’s just got a great basketball IQ, and she’s a little more seasoned in the pro game in a couple of months than she was two months ago.”
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On June 9, it was revealed that Clark did not make the Team USA roster. At that point, she had played only 12 WNBA games in her career. Despite this, the former Iowa star had scored 20 or more points in half of those contests.
Over the last two months, Clark’s performance has become more consistent, although she has scored 20-plus points in just four of the 14 games since the announcement that she would not be heading to Paris.
The perception of Clark as a player should not have changed dramatically over the past two months. Staley’s explanation for why Clark did not make Team USA is only slightly more palatable than the previous unsatisfactory reasoning that was provided.
