Each week, Boston Globe Today Sports host and Globe sports columnist Chris Gasper provides commentary on a notable topic in the segment “Write or Wrong?”
This week he’s tackling Caitlin Clark’s omission from the US women’s Olympic basketball team.
The Golden Girl of women’s basketball was left off the 2024 Team USA roster for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.
The controversy over Clark’s omission is complex, but here’s what isn’t: She’s not one of the 12 best US women’s players right now. And that should be the basis for selecting the team.
If you want to base the team on marketing power rather than merit, then Clark, a sensation who captured the nation’s attention as a college player at Iowa, should be on the roster. But that’s the only way she’s deserving at this point in her pro career.
If Clark makes the team on marketability and not basketball ability, it will only further inflame the resentment and disappointment expressed by her overlooked WNBA peers.
Some of the behavior towards Clark in the W has gone beyond rookie initiation. That’s disappointing and can’t be condoned. However, the US women, winners of seven straight Olympic golds, don’t need Clark on the team to win — New York Liberty sharpshooter Sabrina Ionescu provides the same shooting touch and passing skill for them.
If this were the movie industry or the music business, Clark would be the USA Basketball hoops headliner. Popularity and box office appeal rule the entertainment world. In sports, merit still matters.
But if you won’t watch the US Olympic women’s basketball team this summer in Paris without Clark, then you aren’t a women’s basketball supporter. You’re just a Caitlin Clark one. That’s OK, but recognize the difference.
