Dawn Staley Admitted Caitlin Clark Would Get More Olympics Consideration Now

Robin Lundberg | Jul 28, 2024

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Caitlin Clark's omission from the Olympics is still a story. Obviously it was a topic of conversation when the roster for the USA women's basketball team was announced, but it was also brought up by Mike Tirico during NBC's coverage of the games from Paris. Following a win by the men's team over Serbia, Tirico asked South Carolina coach Dawn Staley about Clark's absence. Staley, a former USA basketball coach, was a member of the selection committee for the squad.

Dawn admitted that things might be different if the choice was made today. "As a committee member you are charged with putting together the best team of players. The best talent. Caitlin is just a rookie in the WNBA. Wasn't playing bad but wasn't playing like she is playing now. If we had to do it all over the again, the way that she's playing, she would be in really high consideration of making the team. Because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people. Shooting the ball extremely well. I mean she is an elite passer. She's just got a great basketball IQ. And she's a little more seasoned."

“If we had to do it all over again, the way she’s playing, [Caitlin Clark] would be in high consideration of making the team”

Dawn Staley on Caitlin Clark’s omission from the Women’s Olympic Basketball team pic.twitter.com/UchPSFyXvC

— Clark Report (@CClarkReport) July 28, 2024

Staley is correct that Caitlin has improved as the WNBA season has gone along, and seems to be consistently making history in proving to be perhaps the best guard in the entire league. Of course the Indiana Fever's arduous schedule of 11 games in 20 days to open the year didn't make things easy for CC to start.

Clark not being there won't stop Team USA from going for an 8th consecutive gold medal. But it probably caused the women's basketball team to receive less attention relative to the rest of the USA Olympians. With fans even pointing out that they were missing from the Beyoncé promo that opened the coverage of the festivities.