Fans are curious as to why Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark was left off of Team USA’s women’s basketball selection for the 2024 Olympics.
Even though she is still one of the most well-known athletes in the world, Clark’s lack of WNBA experience prevented her from being signed; instead, the team chose to include more seasoned players from the developing league.
It’s time to fully comprehend why Caitlin Clark was not invited to play for Team USA and represent her country as the Olympics draw nearer every day.
A few weeks ago, the women’s basketball roster for Team USA was made public, leaving millions of fans worldwide perplexed as to why the

After breaking the NCAA’s all-time scoring record for both men’s and women’s basketball during her senior season at Iowa, Clark was the presumptive No. 1 overall selection for the Fever all the way from her final collegiate game until the day of the draft on April 15. Clark has since come into the league experiencing both highs and lows as she’s been trying to become accustomed to the style of play in the best women’s basketball league in the world.

Because of her generational abilities and unbelievable shooting in college, many in the WNBA believed that Clark would receive a wake-up call very early on in her professional career, prompting the basketball community to label players such as Kelsey Plum of the Las Vegas Aces and Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury as being envious of Clark’s incredible fame. Taurasi even said herself that Clark would most likely not be the same player in the WNBA as she was in college.

Now that it’s been known for some time that Clark won’t be joining the team, it’s possible to start piecing together the story as to why she was not chosen and her contemporaries were. Even after being named a WNBA All-Star in her debut season, it still was not enough to avoid rejection.

Clark’s Fame a Detriment?

One of the leading causes of Clark’s absence from the team is also what is making her league more profitable than ever

Caitlin Clark, since at least her junior season in college, has become one of the most famous athletes in all of women’s sports and is one of the biggest reasons why the WNBA is seeing its biggest spike in popularity since the league was founded in 1996.

While it would be reasonable to believe that this would only help her case to make the team, it actually proved to be one of the main reasons why Clark was dismissed. Though Clark isn’t the only young and rising WNBA star to miss out on playing for her country, it’s worth mentioning that her massive following was in fact a part of the situation. As arguably one of college basketball’s biggest stars ever, she did have a unique reason for joining the team based on her prior experience.

To try and defend the decision to not have Clark join the team, a story broke that involved some of the veteran members of the women’s basketball team that explained why it was determined that Clark’s presence would not be beneficial for both the team and the league. USA Today’s Christine Brennan had reportedly talked to at least two current members of the team, and they said that Clark would not have played enough for the team to warrant her being there and that her fans around the world would be disappointed as a result.

Plenty were outraged by this response, as it was believed that Clark’s ability to pull in a worldwide audience would then give her Olympic teammates some time to be recognized for their talents by millions of basketball fans around the globe. In the end, Clark’s presence would have given the WNBA even more exposure than what Clark had brought to it already, making the decision to not invite her to the team baffling to many.

Fit and Play-Style

Concerns about how Clark would find herself in the rotation were contributing factors to her absence from the team

Contrary to popular belief, Clark is not the only talented guard who loves to shoot long-range three-pointers. That distinction also belongs to several other players in the league, most notably Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty and Kelsey Plum of the Las Vegas Aces. These two are some of the most offensively gifted talents in the league at the guard positions, and members of the team were not sure that they needed another player of this archetype.

Both Plum and Ionescu are some of the more established shooters in the league, and they have the experience that the recruiters for the team are looking for. Ionescu is a two-time WNBA All-Star and two-time selection to the All-WNBA team, and she most recently broke the single-season record for three-pointers made in the 2023 season with a total of 128.

As for Plum, she’s a seven-year WNBA veteran who established herself as one of the league’s most efficient shooters, as she drained a career-high 42 percent of her 7.5 three-point attempts during the 2022 season. Ionescu in particular would have been the toughest player to overcome on the depth chart for Clark, as was noted by Team USA’s staff.

As a result of both players’ presence on the roster, it was viewed that Clark was not a necessary addition to the squad, and the team went on a different route by picking up some of the best forward and center talent that the league has to offer, inviting Brittney Griner of the Mercury, Breanna Stewart of the Liberty and two-time league MVP, A’ja Wilson of the Aces. If the team was looking to pick up veterans for the purpose of keeping games under control, it could be argued that Team USA made the right decision.

Clark still has not fully developed as a play-maker in the league despite her high number of assists, as she is also averaging a whopping 5.6 turnovers, which is twice the amount of Ionescu’s (2.6).

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