Team USA Coach Scolds Reporter for Question About Caitlin Clark’s Olympics Future

Kristen Wong | Jul 15, 2024

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Minnesota Lynx and current Team USA women’s basketball coach Cheryl Reeve kept things terse with a reporter who asked a seemingly harmless question about rookie standout Caitlin Clark on Sunday.

Hours before the game between the Lynx and Indiana Fever was set to tip-off, ESPN’s Myron Medcalf floated a question to Reeve about Clark’s potential future as an Olympian.

“Why the hell would I answer a national team question?” Reeve responded. “I’m wearing Lynx. And I’m the head coach of the national team, but I’m not the chair of the committee. Anybody want to venture into anything else?”

I asked Cheryl Reeve about Caitlin Clark on future national teams: "Why the hell would I answer a national team question?" she said. "I'm wearing Lynx. And I'm the head coach of the national team but I'm not the chair of the committee. Anybody want to venture into anything else?"

— Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) July 14, 2024

Clark’s Olympic snub has since generated plenty of controversy over whether the Fever rookie deserves a spot on the 12-woman Olympic women’s basketball roster headed to the Paris Games this summer.

True to Reeve’s point, the Lynx coach is not on the 2024 USA basketball selection committee in charge of picking the Olympic squad, which instead includes committee chair Jen Rizzotti, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley and retired Olympians Seimone Augustus and Delisha Milton-Jones, among others.

“It would be irresponsible for us to talk about [Caitlin Clark] in a way other than how she would impact the play of the team,” Rizzotti said in June. “Because it wasn’t the purview of our committee to decide how many people would watch or how many people would root for the U.S. It was our purview to create the best team we could for Cheryl.”

On Sunday, Clark’s Fever beat Reeve and the Lynx, 81-74, on the road to improve to 11-14 on the season.