‘Dumbest sh*t ever’: Team USA leaves Caitlin Clark off Olympics roster

by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News June 9, 2024

The Washington Mystics moved Friday’s game against the Indiana Fever from their normal 4,200-seat arena to the 20,356-seat Capital One arena. Tickets for the extra 16,000 seats sold out in 30 minutes.

The Mystics are winless in the WNBA this season. So why the immense interest in Friday’s game?

Caitlin Clark.

The Fever rookie, easily the best thing to happen to women’s basketball in recent memory, hit for 30 points in the Fever’s victory over the Mystics.

On Saturday, the Team USA women’s basketball roster for this summer’s Paris Olympic Games was announced.

Clark is not on the roster.

But America-hating Britney Griner is.

Kayce Smith of Barstool Sports wrote on X: “Team USA deciding to leave the biggest superstar at home for THE OLYMPICS is the dumbest shit ever. Caitlin Clark is quite literally selling out NBA arenas AND breaking WNBA records. But sure! why make Team USA more watched, cooler and have infinitely more jerseys sold???”

Legacy sports media passed the omission of Clark off as acceptable because she supposedly would have had little playing time on a veteran-heavy Olympic roster.

USA Today’s Christine Brennan reports that fear of fan backlash due to the minimal number of minutes Clark would have played factored heavily into the decision to leave her off the roster:

“Two other sources, both long-time U.S. basketball veterans with decades of experience in the women’s game, told USA TODAY Sports Friday that concern over how Clark’s millions of fans would react to what would likely be limited playing time on a stacked roster was a factor in the decision making,” Brennan wrote. “If true, that would be an extraordinary admission of the tension that this multi-million-dollar sensation, who signs autographs for dozens of children before and after every game, has caused for the old guard of women’s basketball. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.”

Others said the decision to leave Clark off the roster was short-sighted to put it mildly.


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