It's A Double-Edged Sword With Caitlin Clark

Let’s start with the obvious. When you send a team of any sport and any gender to the Olympics, your number one goal is to win the Gold Medal. To do that you have to send the best players you have access to. CC is an amazing talent and her popularity numbers, the attention she gets, and the attendance she draws is something we’ve never seen in women’s basketball, EVER, and that is not up for debate. Those are actual numbers that you can look-up. If their sole job was to just garner attention, then yes, she should have been on Team USA, and she would have been. However, it is not her time in that uniform. It isn’t that she is not good enough, it is, she isn’t ready and the women they’ve chosen are ready and stand above her this time around; and more than capable of winning that Gold Medal, which is job number one.

I think sending Clark would have gotten a lot more views, but not all views are good views. She would have spent most of her time on the bench and that would have done her, USA Basketball, and the other deserving players a disservice. We want the talk to be about winning Gold for our country. We already have to deal with the back and forth during the normal season, but this is the ultimate, and we want that focus on dominating the world, not continuing a pissing match of opinion on the world stage. It’s a double-edged sword with this particular subject within women’s basketball. It’s a known fact she is best for business right now and if that is all it was for, then like I previously mentioned, she’d be there. However, the other side is, we needed to put our best foot forward of winning Gold and keeping the talk about the play on the court against the world. I have no doubts she will have her time on that team, and there isn’t anything wrong with her not making it this time around.

She is continuing to learn how to be a pro, how to deal with the added physicality of the pro game, and now she’ll be able to take a much needed and deserved break as not to burnout too quick this early in her career. We should want her to take her lumps within the WNBA; that way when we do send her to represent our country that she isn’t taking them at the same time on the world stage. She’ll be ready and we will all be better for it. Let’s all be patient and realize this is probably for the best on so many levels. Now, let’s back our women who are going like we would regardless of who’s there, and to the actual women who are going….Bring home that GOLD MEDAL!!! USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!