USA Basketball is expected to remove Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark from the roster. 2024 Paris Olympics Questions were piling up Saturday morning, but one report shed some light on the decision.
USA Today columnist Christine Brennan, citing two sources, reported that one of the reasons for Clark’s removal from the women’s national team was concern about how fans would react to her at the Olympics, where she would likely have limited playing time.
Caitlin Clark attends the 2024 WNBA Draft at Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, NY on April 15, 2024. (Cora Veltman/Sportico via Getty Images)
Brennan described the sources as “long-time USA Basketball veterans with decades of experience in women’s basketball.”
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Reports of the decision were met with strong backlash on social media, and as Brennan points out: WNBA I’m happy about Clark’s popularity.
“If true, this would be a rare acknowledgment of the real tensions that veteran members of women’s basketball have with this multi-million dollar sensation,” Brennan wrote of his knowledge of the source.
Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever plays during the 2024 Commissioner’s Cup game against the New York Liberty on June 2, 2024 in Brooklyn, New York. (Catalina Fragoso/NBAE via Getty Images)
WNBA star Kaitlyn Clark likely to be left out of Team US Olympic squad: reports
Clark was invited to national team training camp in April but was unable to attend because the Iowa Hokies advanced to the women’s finals of the NCAA Tournament.
Nine other Olympians were also invited to the camp, including five-time Phoenix Mercury gold medalist Diana Taurasi, who is expected to return, and Fever teammate Aliyah Boston was also invited to join the national team training roster in April.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark brings the ball up the court during a game against the Chicago Sky at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on June 1, 2024 in Indianapolis. (Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Clark has won three gold medals with the USA Basketball Junior National Team, her most recent coming in 2021 with the U.S. Women’s U-19 National Team.
The United States women’s basketball team has won every gold medal since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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