Cheryl Reeve 'Took a Lot of Bullets' for Team USA Over Caitlin Clark Olympics Snub
One of the biggest stories in women's basketball this season was that Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark wasn't selected to be part of USA Women's Basketball's roster for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Someone many people pointed to when this decision was announced was Cheryl Reeve, who's the head coach of both the Minnesota Lynx and the current Team USA women's coach.
While it was known that Reeve was not part of Team USA's Paris Olympics roster selection committee, the general assumption was that she could have had a say in bringing Clark on board if she desired.
And more criticism came her way after she asserted multiple times that she wasn't interested in revisiting whether the rookie sensation was deserving of a Team USA roster spot in Paris.
While Reeve didn't speak much about Clark's snub leading up to the Olympics, she sent a clear message about it during a September 23 episode of the "Good Game with Sarah Spain" podcast.
"I think what people don't get about it... the coach of the national team has no power in the selection of the team," Reeve said when asked what people don't get about Clark not making Team USA's Olympics roster.
Reeve then told a story of how Lynx player Kayla McBride was cut from Team USA while she was head coach in 2022, which should serve as proof that she has no power over which players get selected.
"In this day and age, you've got to assign blame somewhere," Reeve then said of the roster construction this past summer. "I took a lot of bullets for USA basketball. It was a unique time, I took a lot of bullets. But it is what it is."
It's fascinating to hear that Reeve essentially admits to taking the fall for Clark's snub, despite having no say over it.
And given her recent praise of the rookie, perhaps Reeve would have brought Clark to Paris if she'd been permitted to.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.