Caitlin Clark. Credit:
© Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
The USA women’s basketball team hasn’t been a point of discussion for a large part of the 2024 Olympics. Despite the team consistently blowing out their opponents, A’ja Wilson and Co. aren’t drawing as much attention as everyone expected them to.
Doug Gottlieb, head coach of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, believes that the absence of Caitlin Clark from the squad is the reason behind the same.
On The Doug Gottlieb Show, the head coach of the Green Bay Phoenix began his segment by claiming that the star-studded USA women’s team was uninteresting. According to the host of the Fox Sports Radio’s show, the selection committee would add Clark to this squad to draw the attention of basketball enthusiasts from all over the world if they could redo certain things.
“The U.S. Women’s National Team is not drawing well or getting any attention. And I guess this is one of those, you think if they could do it all over again, they would include Caitlin Clark. I don’t think it’s intentional. I don’t think NBC not paying attention to it is intentional.”
“It’s just not interesting… They’ve done this to themselves. They’re still winning and they’re still going to win the thing. They’re still the best team, but they’re not interesting anymore,” he said.
The WNBA and Women’s basketball in general have been gaining incredible popularity over the past year. Caitlin Clark’s performance during her college days has been the biggest reason behind the same. As per Gottlieb, the exclusion of the Indiana Fever rookie has resulted in the media giving women’s basketball the same negligible attention as before.
And no one else is to be blamed for the same other than the selectors for the American squad.
“We’re not talking about it at all. We’re back to covering women’s basketball the way it’s always been covered, where nobody really cares. Nobody really pays attention.
It doesn’t matter that we’re better than everybody else… There is no ratings boon from covering it,” Gottlieb concluded.
Gottlieb isn’t wrong. Team USA has been the strongest basketball-playing nation in the world, winning gold in each of the last 7 Summer Games. There is no doubt that the current squad, led by A’ja Wilson, will be defending their medal.
Even if the selectors’ reason for not including Caitlin Clark was because of performance, the USA would’ve won the gold medal irrespective. With her presence, the team would massively benefit, with millions of avid basketball fans paying attention to the women’s event.
There was an outburst among basketball fans when the former Hawkeye was not part of the 12-member squad to represent the USA in Paris. However, Clark wasn’t as disheartened. Immediately after her snub, the 6ft guard seemed lively and admitted to using this as an opportunity to motivate herself to be better.
“Honestly, no disappointment. Like, I think it just gives you something to work for. You know, that’s a dream. You know, hopefully, one day I can be there. I think it’s just a little more motivation,” the 22-year-old said.
Basketball fans longing to watch the 2024 Rookie of the Year frontrunner play will have to wait till 16th August when the Fever resume their season.
