Dawn Staley, the reigning Naismith Coach of the Year and national champion with South Carolina, was surprisingly candid about Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub Sunday.
Staley, a member of the Olympic team selection committee, was in Paris as part of a presidential delegation. She admitted in an NBC interview that Clark’s WNBA play has improved since decisions were made.
“As a committee member, you’re charged with putting together the best team of players, the best talent. Caitlin is just a rookie in the WNBA, wasn’t playing bad, but wasn’t playing like she’s playing now,” Staley said. “If we had to do it all over again, the way that she’s playing, she would be in really high consideration of making the team because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people.”
Reports of Clark’s Olympic omission first began circling June 8, with the rookie confirming the news the next day. In early June, less than a month into the WNBA season, Clark’s Indiana Fever had played more games than any other team, and many of them against the top contenders in the league. The Fever had won only three games by the time the selections dropped.
Since then, Clark’s play and Indiana’s have improved. She’s averaging 17.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, and 1.5 steals per game so far this season, with two 30-point games. The team has improved its record to 11–15, good enough to make the playoffs if the season ended today.
At the time of the selection, ESPN analyst and Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Lobo didn’t blame the Fever’s poor performance out of the gate. Instead, she pointed out that training camps for the future Olympic team had been happening several times a year since February 2022, and Clark’s attendance had been limited.
“Caitlin Clark, through no fault of her own, was not able to participate in any of those training camps. She would have either last year in April of ’23 or April of ’24, except her team was playing in the Final Four,” Lobo said. “I think USA Basketball selection committee did a pretty good job making a terrific roster and rewarding the players who have made those sacrifices and made those commitments to USAB.”
Jennifer Rizzotti, Connecticut Sun president and committee chair for the USA Basketball women’s national team, said during a press conference that Clark has had a “tremendous” start to her WNBA career, but she is proud that the selection committee built a roster that understands head coach Cheryl Reeve’s systems.
“But essentially it was the committee’s job to pick the 12 based on our selection criteria, and as much as you want to maybe make conversation around how we should have considered TV viewership or jersey sales or popularity, that wasn’t the purview of the committee to have those discussions,” Rizzotti said. “A lot of conversation goes around what’s most important to put on the floor for Cheryl and give her the opportunity to have the best roster available, not necessarily always the 12 best players.”
Clark has been diplomatic about the snub—though she did say the selection committee “woke a monster” by leaving her off the roster—and has since embraced the WNBA’s monthlong Olympic break. This three-week period is Clark’s first extended bit of rest since she began her senior college season at Iowa last fall. “I honestly can’t wait to not touch a basketball for a while,” the rookie said after her first All-Star game. But her fans and many media members were furious about her exclusion, and NBC couldn’t have been thrilled, either.
The USA women’s team plays its first game of the Olympics on Monday at 3 p.m. ET against Japan.
