Following the late Friday night announcement of the final roster for the U.S. women’s basketball team, which will compete in the next Olympics in Paris, the conversation around Caitlin Clark reached a new height. The team, which has WNBA players like A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Plum, Sabrina Ionescu, and Diana Taurasi, did not include the rookie for the Indiana Fever.
Fans of Clark who are vocal and some well-known media figures argue that by keeping her off the squad, USA Basketball—which prepares teams for international play—has lost a great chance to promote women’s basketball at the greatest level.
“The [WNBA] requires increased scrutiny. In a phone conversation, seasoned sports marketing analyst, author, and creative director Bob Dorfman stated that Caitlin Clark had done a superior job of it than anyone else. There appears to be some resentment toward the way she’s sort of stepped in and taken charge. I suppose there is some jealousy, but her contributions to the league are priceless. Big crowds, attendance records, and ratings that smash previous records. Therefore, if you want people to follow the squad at the Olympics, you kind of have to be there.
Given how stacked the deck is against Team USA at guard, Dorfman conceded that Clark would not have played much, but he thinks those few minutes would have been extremely valuable on television. Because it’s the Olympics, you’re not going to attract a huge, die-hard basketball fan base as your audience. It seems like she has to be there if you really want to grow the market, attract more fans, and ignite a passion for women’s basketball.
However, not everyone feels that this was a tremendously lost chance. The chief marketing officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Rick Burton, the David B. Falk Endowed Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University, believes that Clark’s lack of selection was due to a decision between team focus and merit, and that Clark’s inexperience could not be overcome by the attention she would have brought.
In a phone interview, Burton stated, “Even though she was incredible in college, she hasn’t been the best player in the WNBA and nobody should have expected her to be the best player.” She’s still getting to know the working world.
“I believe [USA Basketball was debating] whether they selected her because of her popularity or because she was among the top 12 players available for the kind of game the coach wanted to play? Based on the other players they intended to select, USA Basketball would have been considering the cohesiveness and chemistry of the team.”
Burton was careful to clarify that USA Basketball’s selections were not influenced by the larger U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Due to the fact that Team USA’s final training camp coincided with the Women’s Final Four, when Clark concluded her incredible collegiate career, Clark was unable to practice with the team in April. The roster assembled by head coach Cheryl Reeve and her staff has a lot of experience playing on the international level, which is typically more physical than WNBA or collegiate basketball.
Furthermore, the guard herself admitted following a recent Fever practice that not all of the attention that has followed Clark has been positive attention. The hard foul that Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter committed on Clark—which was elevated to a flagrant—checked all the boxes for controversy in a highly politicized media environment. A former WNBA owner and an Indiana lawmaker even commented on it.
“I think that a lot of other issues might offset the values that she would bring in the short term, according to [USA Basketball],” Burton stated. “She wouldn’t necessarily be the best player on the team, but she would become this media magnet.”
Imagine the fury that would ensue if Clark was hip-checked late in a preliminary round matchup with Belgium. Would the worldwide attention that followed be worthwhile? Dorfman stated, “The truth is, we’re still talking about it that foul, and ultimately that’s good.” “The WNBA and its continued prominence are newsworthy.”
In addition, Dorfman thought that Brittney Griner, who will be playing abroad for the first time since her release from Russian incarceration in 2022, could already be a possible distraction for the squad.
Notwithstanding fierce competition from Australia, Spain, and the host nation of France, the USA Basketball women’s senior program, which hasn’t lost an Olympic game since 1992 or been defeated in an international competition since 2006, is predicted to win an eighth straight gold medal. The overwhelming success of the women’s basketball team hasn’t received the same publicity as that of their male counterparts in the sport, as well as that of other USA teams competing in women’s gymnastics, women’s swimming, and even women’s soccer.
Could the players who were truly selected have additional sponsorship and economic chances at the Paris Games? Dorfman cautioned that the team’s domination could be detrimental to their exposure, but acknowledged that practically any of the younger players on the team, like Ionescu, Plum, or Jackie Young, could benefit from the Olympics.
“How badly are they going to win every game?” he questioned. The fact that there is competition and that opposing international teams can beat them adds to the enthusiasm around the men’s squad these days. Thus, if the games are tight, perhaps that will make them more intriguing. If they don’t blow it as badly as everyone thinks they will, they can play well against a few other teams.
Even yet, if Team USA advances to the gold medal game as anticipated, a substantial crowd should still be anticipated. The women’s basketball final vs Japan at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 attracted 7.9 million viewers, making it the most watched women’s basketball match in at least five years. (The U.S. men’s team’s match versus France drew a crowd of 9.2 million.) Rewinding to 2012, 10.2 million people saw the US ladies win the gold medal at the London Games versus France.
Burton declared, “Women’s basketball is going to be great, whether or not Caitlin is on that team. It’s the strongest sport in history.” “The Olympics are a marketing machine unto itself. NBC will promote the women’s competitions. The women’s squad has 12 more outstanding players, and they will get the proper attention.
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