Leaving Caitlin Clark off the U.S. Olympic roster was the right call | Politi (2024)

One of the dumbest questions I’ve ever asked came after the U.S. women’s basketball team obliterated France to win a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. The recipient was Sue Bird, who had just walked off the court after this juggernaut of a team celebrated a 41st consecutive Olympic win. The victory was decisive but the buzz was lacking, and that led to a tired storyline.

“Is this team too good for its own good?” I asked.

Bird, to her credit, didn’t punch me in the throat. “Aw, c’mon, we just won the gold medal,” she replied before providing a more eloquent answer about how hard it is to consistently win at the highest level. I deserved something far more blunt and, frankly, a little angry. Something along the lines of …

It isn’t our #$%@$ job to make THEM better!

I thought of that interaction this morning as outrage spread about USA Basketball’s apparent decision to leave Caitlin Clark off the team for the Paris Olympics. Clark won’t be one of the 12 Americans on the roster, a decision that stunned many observers because she already is a transcendent figure in the sport.

If you want to make the argument that she deserves a spot on merit, fine, I’m listening. She is a singular talent, a two-time national college player of the year and the No. 1 pick in the recent WNBA Draft. She also has played just 12 games at the professional level and hasn’t spent a single minute in a national team camp.

Her worthiness as a player on what might be the most difficult U.S. team to make is a fair debate. But if you’re telling me Clark must be on that team because more people would watch women’s basketball competition in Paris as a result? Because Team USA has some nebulous responsibility to “grow the game?”

Sorry. That isn’t the mission here.

Look, we all know what Clark has done for basketball. We saw it here in New Jersey in January when she filled Jersey Mike’s Arena, then stood in a tunnel of humanity signing autographs after an easy Iowa victory over Rutgers. I was struck with how easily she seemed to carry the responsibility of giving back to the fans who came to see her.

“It just takes a second out of my day to make someone else’s day,” she said then. “That’s how I was raised. Also, I was that young girl. I remember going to games just like this. I remember wanting a high five and wanting an autograph and wanting to catch a T-shirt. That really does make your whole year or week and it really just takes a second out of your day. Also like you said, those are moments they’re going to remember for a really long time.”

But Team USA has one job — and it isn’t making people happy. It’s winning the gold medal. I had one reply on X (formerly Twitter) pointing out that the Olympics are really just a TV show, and maybe that’s true. But just like it’s not the basketball team’s duty to improve its competition, it is certainly not its responsibility to make sure anybody is watching.

Can you imagine the conversation with the final player cut from the team if Clark was chosen for all these off-the-court reasons?

COACH: Sorry. We have to let you go.

PLAYER: What did I do wrong? Did I not hustle enough? Score enough points? Get enough rebounds or assists?

COACH: Nah. You’re just not good for ratings.

If eyeballs matter so much, just let NBC pick all the teams. We could have Team USA archer Kim Kardashian and American rower The Rock. Actually, come to think of it, the network would just scrap those boring sports all together and replace them with something else entirely. We’d have “America’s Got Talent — Olympic Version.” I shouldn’t give them any ideas.

Again: If you’re angry that Clark didn’t make it on merits, yell it out to the masses. The fact that so many people are engaged in this discussion is healthy for women’s hoops, and many of them might want to google the name Arike Ogunbowale. She’s second in the WNBA with 26.6 ppg and didn’t make the U.S. Olympic team, either.

Team USA opted for a roster stacked with veterans and loaded with international experience. It decided to build the best team, which means it made choices based on chemistry and fit. It was extremely likely that Clark, had she made the team, would have been a bench warmer.

Would that really have helped “grow the game?”

There was a time, not long ago, when the U.S. men’s team faced enormous criticism because it had the audacity to lose in the Olympics. The U.S. women haven’t done that in 55 straight games — clearly, they know what they’re doing. The argument that they need to do more for the sport than this almost unparalleled level of excellence is unfair and, frankly, a little insulting.

Caitlin Clark is good for women’s basketball. It’s also good that Team USA’s decision makers didn’t kowtow to outside pressure and put her on the Olympic roster for reasons related to anything but winning as many games as possible. It isn’t their job to get TV ratings.

MORE FROM STEVE POLITI:

N.J. gymnast Livvy Dunne is leading a revolution in college sports

The untold story of how Rutgers crashed the Big Ten

How an ex-Rutgers athlete ended up charged with murder in Tijuana

I was a bird-flipping Little League menace — and it’s time to come clean

The search for Luther Wright, once N.J.’s greatest hoops talent

I played Augusta National and had my own Masters meltdown

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.