USA women’s basketball selection committee chair Jen Rizzotti said that popularity did not come into play when deciding whether Caitlin Clark would make the Olympic team.
The USA Basketball staff knew what kind of backlash they would get if they had not included Caitlin Clark on the Olympic roster.
Well, they made the decision to leave the No. 1 overall pick off, and the noise has been loud.
Clark herself said that « they woke a monster, » and it remains a debate on whether she was snubbed or not.
However, the organization feels that, simply, Clark isn’t one of the 12 best players to represent the United States.
Of course, the eyeballs Clark brings are unprecedented in the women’s game — she was the star of the four most-watched women’s college basketball games ever, three of which came in this past March Madness tournament.
